The influence of cultivar and environment on the chlorophyll concentration of Australian canola seed

Abstract

The chlorophyll content of mature seeds of Australian canola was studied to determine breeding line and environmental effects. The canola lines tested included a large number of commercial cultivars as well as lines from the major canola-breeding programs. The lines represented 5 groups based on maturity and group 6 consisting of triazine-tolerant types. Trials were grown at 64 sites throughout the canola-growing area of Australia in 2000. An NIR Systems 6500 spectrophotometer, calibrated to measure chlorophyll, was used to analyse the large number of samples. For each group, chlorophyll content was modelled using a linear mixed model which included site, line and site × line effects. Both line and site × line effects were significant (P<0.05) in all analyses. The line effect indicates that, while the environment is the major determinant of chlorophyll, selection may be possible in breeding programs, utilising rapid NIR techniques, to select for lines least likely to retain chlorophyll in mature seeds.