Selection for high seed zinc concentration: developing a reliable selection method

摘要

Increasing the grain zinc (Zn) content of staple food crops will help alleviate chronic Zn deficiency in many areas of the world. Significant variation in grain Zn concentration is often reported, but without considering the effect of grain yield on Zn concentration, the variation in grain Zn concentrations may simply represent a 'concentration effect'. To obtain reliable information of the true level of genetic variation in grain nutrient concentration, the effect of grain yield on Zn concentration needs to be reduced. A method of data analysis is described which will overcome this problem. By defining the 95% confidence belt for the regression of grain Zn yield on grain yield, genotypes that have inherently low or high grain Zn concentrations can be identified. This method is illustrated using two data sets, one consisting of bread wheat and one comprising a collection of synthetic hexaploids.