A mutant recombinant of linseed with very low levels of linolenic acid

Full text: Two flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) mutants having reduced linolenic acid content in their seed oil (M1589=19.1% linolenic; M1722=23.4% linolenic) were crossed to determine whether further reductions could be achieved by recombination of the mutant genes. Extensive transgressive segregation was evident in the F2 for both linolenic acid (1.2-36.6%) and linoleic acid (14.7-55.2%), which were strongly negatively correlated (r-0.97), F2 plants homozygous for both the M1589 and M1722 mutations had very low levels of linolenic acid (<2%) and high levels of linoleic acid (>46%). (author)