Variation of Mucilage in Flax Seed and Its Relationship with Other Seed Characters

Abstract

A four‐location trial in western Canada with 16 North American flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) cultivars was conducted in 2001 and 2002 to investigate the genotypic and environmental influences on mucilage in the flax seed coat. The viscosity of a water extract from intact flax seed was used as quantitative descriptor of the seed‐coat mucilage (mucilage indicator value, MIV). Thousand‐seed weight (TSW) and oil content in the seed were also observed. The MIV in the 16 cultivars ranged from 90.6 to 246.1 centistokes (cSt) mL g−1, TSW ranged from 5.21 to 6.91 g, and oil content ranged from 447 to 491 g kg−1 Significant differences were found among the cultivars for all characters. A screening of 1689 recently regenerated accessions from 61 countries of the Plant Gene Resources of Canada (PGRC) flax collection showed MIVs ranging from 22.1 to 343.4 cSt mL g−1 The ranges for TSW and oil content were 3.53 to 11.50 g and 314 to 457 g kg−1, respectively. The group displaying the highest MIV included registered North American cultivars. There was no association of MIV with geographic origin, TSW, or seed oil content. Recent North American linseed cultivars varied considerably for MIVs, and breeding for this trait without impact on seed oil content or TSW should be possible.