EVALUATION OF ACCESSIONS FROM WORLD COLLECTION OF SAFFLOWER FOR ALTERNARIA INCIDENCE and SEED OIL CONTENT

 Cervantes- Martínez, J. E., Rey-Ponce M.. and Velázquez-Cágal M

 Abstract

With the objective to find safflower germplasm with resistance to Alternaria leaf spot caused by Alternaria carthami and high oil percent, 721 accessions from U.S. world collection were evaluated during the 2000 winter growing season at Cuauhtémoc, Tamaulipas, Mexico (22°34¢10¢¢ NL; 98°09¢20¢¢WL). Each accession was planted in a row two meters long and 0.76 m wide. All accessions emerged very well, but high heterogeneity intra-accession was observed. From the total genetic material, eighty-four accessions were detected tolerant to Alternaria. Moreover, 377 accessions selected for good agronomic characteristics had seed oil percent values ranging from 12.79 to 42.03%. From this material, 37 accessions yielded above 32.1% seed oil content. These preliminary results suggest that some interesting accessions from the U.S. safflower collection can be used as a source of Alternaria resistance and high oil percent in breeding purposes.

Keywords: Carthamus tinctorius, Alternaria resistance, seed oil content, Mexico