SELECTION FOR REDUCED LINOLENIC ACID CONTENT IN ETHIOPIAN MUSTARD (BRASSICA-CARINATA BRAUN)

Reducing linolenic acid content is one of the most important objective s for the development of Ethiopian mustard lines with high oil quality . This work was aimed at searching for variability of the fatty acid c omposition of oil within a germplasm collection of Ethiopian mustard. A total of 217 lines were analysed by gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) in 1991, and one was selected as having reduced values of both linolen ic acid content (10.2% versus 14.0% of total fatty acids as the collec tion average) and linoleic acid desaturation ratio (LDR, 0.34 versus 0 .45). After 3 years of pedigree selection for low linolenic acid conte nt, this line showed. in 1995, average values of this fatty acid of 5. 4% and 2.4% in two different environments, compared with 11.6% and 8.3 %, respectively, in the control. The values of the LDR were 0.18 and 0 .09, respectively, compared with 0.36 and 0.27 in the control line.