Investigation of morphoagronomic performance and selection indices in the international safflower panel for breeding perspectives

Fawad ALI,Faheem Shehzad BALOCH,Yusuf ARSLAN,Ephrem HABYARIMANA,Abdurrahim YILMAZ,Malik Ashiq RABBANI,Hassan Javed CHAUDHARY,Muhammad Azhar NADEEM,Muhammad Amjad NAWAZ

doi:10.3906/tar-1902-49

Abstract

Developing high yielding safflower cultivars with good adaptation to diverse environmental conditions can improve production in terms of seed yield and reduce the deficiency in edible oil. The genetic variability that exists among and within populations for desirable agronomic traits can be used to develop elite cultivars. A total of 94 safflower accessions from 26 different countries were used in this study to evaluate morphoagronomic performance, determine the pattern of similarity centers, and identify the best performing accessions by conducting 2 field experiments in Pakistan and Turkey using augmented design. Genetic diversity for important yield and yield traits was described including capitulum diameter (17.30 to 28.30 mm), branches per plant (5.10 to 17.30), capitula per plant (8.70 to 80.40), and seed yield per plant (4.86 to 51.02 g). These analyses showed a good level of variation in the current study. Using principal component analysis, it was observed that days to flower initiation, days to 50% flowering, days to flower completion, seed yield per plant, capitula per plant, branches per plant, seeds per capitulum, and capitulum diameter were the major contributors to the observed genetic variability in the evaluated safflower panel. Seed yield per plant reflected a significant and positive correlation with capitula per plant, branches per plant, and capitulum diameter, and these traits can be suggested as a selection criterion in safflower breeding programs. The hierarchical clustering was in agreement with the patterns of 7 similarity centers based on seed yield per plant, capitula per plant, capitulum diameter, and branches per plant. During this study, a few promising safflower accessions were selected for future breeding programs.

Highlights

Agronomic crops are grown on a large scale for consumption purposes because they provide food, feed grain, oil, and fiber
Safflower accession India5 revealed minimum days to 50% flowering, while maximum days to 50% flowering were observed for accession Afghanistan2
The results suggested the following traits: days to flower initiation, days to 50% flowering, days to flower completion, seed yield per plant, capitula per plant, branches per plant, seeds per capitulum, and capitulum diameter were responsible for the genetic variation in the current international safflower panel

Summary

Introduction

Agronomic crops are grown on a large scale for consumption purposes because they provide food, feed grain, oil, and fiber. They serve as a source of income to farmers and as an important source of raw materials for industries (Sahin et al, 2002; Serce et al, 2010; Cesur et al, 2018; Galiana-Belaguer et al, 2018). About 75% of the global vegetable oil trade is derived from 4 main crops: soybeans, oil palm, rapeseed, and sunflowers Such a large percentage has led some to consider other oilseed crops as underutilized or neglected (Murphy, 1999). Safflower is preferred over other oilseed crops due to its agronomic advantages such as drought resistance and adaptation to the arid and semiarid conditions that represent important scenarios of climate change (Weiss, 2000)

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