Screening and Selection of One Hundred Flax (Linum usitatissimum) Accessions for Yield Production

Flax is cultured for fiber and oil production around the world. The demand for flax is increasing in industries each year. In order to screening and selection of 86 accessions from five subspecies along with 19 unknown accessions, the seeds of the accessions were cultured in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The experiment took two years in Karaj, Iran. ANOVA results showed that the accessions and their interaction with year had significant effects on the measured traits (P < .05 or 0.01). Our results showed a substantial level of diversity among the accessions with respect to the measured traits. Based on correlation analysis, there were positive and significant relationships between seed yield (SY) and number of basal branches (NBB), capsules per main branch (CMB), number of capsules and seeds per plant (CP and NSP). Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that the predicting model explained 99% of flax yield variation in which the CP, NSP, and TSW were effective traits in describing the variation. Cluster analysis categorized the 100 accessions into seven clusters. Our results suggested that accessions '19MODIFIER LETTER PRIME and '35MODIFIER LETTER PRIME from the first and the third clusters could be cultivated as promising genotypes for SY and fiber production, respectively.

Automated summary

The study found a high level of diversity among flax resources and identified effective traits related to flax yield through correlation analysis and multiple linear regression. Cluster analysis categorized the resources into seven clusters and highlighted two potential promising genotypes for fiber and yield production in the first and third clusters.