Seed oil diversity of Ethiopian linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) landraces accessions and some exotic cultivars

Keeping in view, lack of adequate information on genetic diversity in the Ethiopian linseed (Linum ustatisimum L.) landraces on one hand and its immense importance in the agricultural systems on the other hand in Ethiopia, 49 accessions collected from five regions of Ethiopia together with fifteen exotic cultivars were used in this study with the objective of investigating biochemical diversity between and within germplasms. The variation among and between Ethiopian linseed landrace accession and exotic cultivars based on grand mean responses revealed that, higher oil content (39.8%) was recorded by exotic cultivar [PI-52335] and the lowest was by Acc. 219333 from Oromia with 30.63%. The highest palmitic proportion (7.06% of all fatty acids) was observed in an Ethiopian accession [Acc. 237494] collected from the province Tigray. Maximum and minimum stearic acid was found in accessions collected from the Oromia Region with 6.21 and 4.74% from Acc. 13545 and 13756, respectively. Maximum oleic acid (21.4%) was also observed in Acc. 13545 that was collected from the Oromia region. Crude protein, crude fat and iodine value were analyzed and discussed. The diversity of Ethiopian linseed landraces will keep serving as a reservoir for future genetic improvements. The first three principal components accounted for more than 73.3% of the total variation. The genotypes were grouped into five clusters for which Mahalanobis’ D