Variation and inheritance of erucic acid content in Brassica carinata germplasm collections from Ethiopia

Ethiopian mustard possesses a number of agronomic advantages over other oilseed crops with similar ecological adaptation in Ethiopia. However, its high erucic acid content is undesirable for a vegetable oil. Although efforts have been made to improve its quality, much has to be done to use natural variations that might exist within the species for fatty acid contents. This project was undertaken to study the variability of fatty acid contents, primarily erucic acid, in germplasm collections of Ethiopian origin, with an attempt to develop low (zero) erucic acid genotypes. The study used inbred lines as well as F₂ populations of 10 crosses between six parental lines. A wide variation in fatty acids was found. Oleic acid content varied from 5 to 34% and erucic acid content from 6 to 51%. Linoleic and linolenic acid contents were less variable. The high‐oleic genotypes exhibited not only low erucic but also higher linoleic (25%) and considerably lower linolenic acid (8%) contents. It was possible to classify the F₂ populations with the lowest erucic acid into three distinct classes. While the first class had an erucic acid content of 6–12%, the second and third classes had contents of 18–32% and 36–42%, respectively. The existence of a multiple allelic series of erucic acid in Ethiopian mustard would enable its fixation at zero levels without necessarily going into interspecific crossing.