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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #116308
Title: EVALUATION OF GUAYULE GERMPLASM FOR AGRONOMIC AND LATEX TRAITS

Author
item Coffelt, Terry
item Dierig, David
item RAY, D - UNIV OF ARIZONA
item Nakayama, Francis

Submitted to: Association for the Advancement of Industrial Crops Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/29/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Latex allergies in the United States are a serious health problem in certain population groups. Guayule is a source of hypoallergenic latex. Higher yielding, faster growing, and easier to establish germplasm lines are needed for guayule to be successful. The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic variation among 20 guayule lines for agronomic and latex traits compared to 11591 and N565. Significant variation was found among the 20 lines and two checks for all traits studied. While none of the lines were better than the checks for all traits, six lines were identified that merit further study. G7-14 was the fastest growing (40 cm tall) the first year and had the best survival rate (99%). N9-4 was the fastest growing the second year (51 cm tall and 47 cm wide), but not different from 11591(55 cm tall and 46 cm wide). P3-11 (4.1%) and P10-4 (4.2%) had a higher latex content per plant than either 11591 (2.4%) or N565 (3.1%). G1-16 had the highest wet-plant weight (2.7 kg), and was one of the highest for dry-plant weight (1.6 kg) and total plant biomass yield (2214 g/m2). The most promising was N9-3, which had the highest dry-plant weight (1.6 kg), weight of plant material after chipping (2.27 kg), weight of latex per plant (60.3 g), latex yield per m2 (83 g), and total plant biomass yield (2259 g/m2), as well as the lowest percentage of loss during chipping (14.8%). The results indicate that variation is available in this germplasm for improvement in all traits studied through a breeding and selection program.