Estimates of genetic parameters and path analysis of crambe: An important oil plant for biofuel production

Abstract

Crambe is an oilseed plant producing oil that can be used for various industrial purposes, including the production of biofuel. It is a short-cycle, non-food plant that can be grown as a second crop following soybean or corn crops and using the same agricultural machinery. This work aimed to estimate genetic parameters and correlations between traits of genotypes grown for two years in seven locations in two Brazilian states. The cultivar FMS Brilhante and the lines CR 1101, CR 1102, CR 1105, CR 1202, CR 1303, and CR 1304 were used. The traits evaluated were grain yield (YD), plant height (PH), stem diameter (SD), first fruiting branch height (BH), 1,000-seed weight (SW), and number of branches (NB). The correlations between traits were identified from the phenotypic covariance matrix through path analysis. Based on the joint analysis, the interaction of genotypes x years x locations was observed. Expressive genetic variability was verified for all evaluated traits, which allows gains to be made with the selection of genotypes. High broad-sense heritabilities based on plot means were verified for YD, BH, and SW (82, 84 and 77%, respectively), which indicates the possibility of directly selecting them. SW and SD showed the greatest direct effects and strongest correlations with YD.