| Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) is the only cultivated crop in the genus Carthamus L.(Compositae). It is a kind of traditional Chinese medicine, a sort of delicious vegetable, a kind of natural dye, and one of the world's oldest oil seed crops, it can also be used as feed. Pharmacological experiments had proved that it had the function of anti-bacteria, anti-virus, Huoxuetongjing, Huayuzhitong, depressing blood pressure, anti-cruor, anti-fatigue, protecting liver, easing pain and mitigation, anti-inflammation, immunity and enduring anoxemic.There are plentiful genetic germplasm in safflower. Because of its low quantity, and lagexploitation, the cultivation area of safflower in China is very small. Safflower is a typicalcrop which underutilized and neglected. The main characters, the relationships betweenyield components and yields were analyzed by correlation, path, and principal componentanalysis in this study. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used tomeasure the content of safflor yellow A, which is the main efficient component ofHuoxuehuayu. In addition, the genetic diversity of safflower by inter-simple sequencerepeats (ISSR) markers were conducted. The main results showed as following:1. Higher genetic variations have been observed among the agronomic characters ofsafflower accessions. The affecting order of fifteen agronomic characters to safflowerwas number of ineffective cones per plant> seed yield per plant > number of seeds perplant > number of effective cones per plant > branch height from base > seed numberper cone > number of cones per plant > number of branches > number of primarybranches > flower yield per plant >100-seed yield > plant height > diameter of primaryhead>the days from seedling emergence to 50% flowering>the days from seedlingemergence to 10% flowering.2. Of all characters investigated there existed some excellent accessions. The seed yield perplant of PI 239226 and PI 367833 were up to 20.00 g, which were the special accessions of higher seed yield per plant. The flower yield per plant of seven accessions, such as PI 239226 exceeded 4.00 g, were the rare accessions of higher flower yield per plant. Jianyang Honghua and eight other accessions' 100-seed yield were surpassed 3.00 g. The number of effective cones per plant of PI 239226, PI 306821 and PI 305539 were up to 40.0, they were heavy 100-seed yield accessions. The seven accessions, for instance, PI 253531 were the rare accessions of bigger primary head because of their diameter of primary head were beyond 2.50 cm.3. Multiple regression analysis showed that 100-seed yield (Xi) , number of ineffective cones per plant (X3) , number of seeds per plant (X4) and number of primary branches (X6> were the primary characters which affected seed yield per plant. The equation of the seed yield per plant to four main characters was Y=-8.784+3.773X1+0.067X3+0.025X4-0.046X6 (F=279.002") . The direct effect of number of seeds per plant was the strongest, and 100-seed yield was the next. Analysis of principal component of seed yield per plant in safflower showed that the accumulated contribution of five main factors was 89.835%. All the accessions were divided into four groups based on nine main agronomic characters of seed yield per plant. The result of the factor analysis showed no difference to that of principal component analysis, and the nine characters were classed into five groups.4. Multiple regression analysis showed that branch height from base (X2) , number of effective cones per plant (X6), number of ineffective cones per plant (X7), number of seeds per cone (X9) , diameter of primary head (X10) were the main factors affecting flower yield per plant. The equation of flower yield per plant to six characters was Y=-3.037+0.003X2+0.046X4+0.075X6+0.043X7+0.023X9+1.148Xi0(F=21.843**).The direct effect of number of effective cones per plant was the strongest, followed by diameter of primary head. Analysis of principal component of flower yield per plant in safflower showed that the accumulated contribution of five main factors was 90.202%. All the accessions were classed into six groups based on eleven mainly agronomic characters of flower yield per plant. The result of the factor analysis was consistent with that of principal component, and the eleven characters were divided into four groups.5. There were significant differences among the seed yield per plant, flower yield per plant and the content of saffior yellow A of diverse accessions. Further studies showed that there was positively significant correlation between seed and flower yield per plant, while the correlation between the content of safflor yellow A and the other two indices were significant. So high-yield and high-quality was probably compatible in saflflower's breeding. The content of safflor yellow A of the accessions with few thorn's of the bracts of exterior-involucrum were obviously higher than that with more thorns. The content of safflor yellow A of European accessions was the highest, followed by Asian accessions, while the content of safflor yellow A of American accessions was the lowest.6. Considering the three indices, namely, the seed yield per plant, flower yield per plant and the content of safflor yellow A, PI 239226, PI 253540, PI 367833 and Jianyang Honghua were outstanding and optimal for cultivating in Sichuan province.7. Genetic diversity and relationships among all the accessions were evaluated using inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR) markers. The results showed that the polymorphism of the safflower germplasm was higher at the DNA level. A total of 429 bands were scored for 22 ISSR primers, 355 out of 429 bands (82.7%) were polymorphic, with an average of 16.1 polymorphic bands per primer. All the accessions could be distinguished by ISSR markers and were divided into 8 groups. Clustering results showed that the genetic diversity of the accessions originated from Asia was relatively higher, while from Europe was the lowest. American accessions had relatively closer relationship with European accessions. The results also showed that the genetic variation of accessions from Indian, Middle Eastern and Egyptian safflower diversity centers were relatively higher, from some other diversity centers were relatively lower. TCC/AC/AG/CT/TC is abundant in safflower genome. Primers based on (TCC)n produced the highest level of polymorphism, followed by (AG)n. Primers based on (GA)n produced the highest level of speciality, the following was (TCC)n. |
PDF Full Text Request