ISOLATION OF INDUCED MUTANTS IN ETHIOPIAN MUSTARD (BRASSICA-CARINATA BRAUN) WITH LOW-LEVELS OF ERUCIC-ACID

Ethiopian mustard (Brassica carinata Braun) is a potential oil crop fo r the rain-fed Mediterranean area. However, its usage is limited by th e high erucic and high glucosinolate content of the oil and meal, resp ectively. In the course of a mutagenesis programme, an agronomically g ood line of Ethiopian mustard was treated with EMS in order to widen t he natural variability of nutritional traits in this species. As a res ult of this programme several low erucic mutants were isolated; two of these mutants showed erucic acid values in the M4 generation in the r ange 5-10% of total fatty acids. Near-infrared reflectance spectroscop y (NIRS) was successfully applied as a rapid screening method for eruc ic acid in this breeding programme.