Increasing castor seed oil content and seed weight using nuclear magnetic resonance technology and recurrent selection

Authors: Chen, Grace

Submitted to: Review Article
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/8/2019
Publication Date: 11/12/2019
Citation: Chen, G.Q. 2019. Increasing castor seed oil content and seed weight using nuclear magnetic resonance technology and recurrent selection. Review Article. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2016.09.020.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2016.09.020

Interpretive Summary: Seed oil of castor bean (Ricinus communis) contains 90% ricinoleic acid which has numerous industrial uses. Increasing seed oil content and seed weight contributes to oil yield and makes castor crop production more cost competitive. This review describes an effective procedure that allows to develop a new castor cultivar with increased seed oil content and weight through recurrent selection of high oil content seeds using nuclear magnetic resonance technology.

Technical Abstract: Castor bean (Ricinus communis) is an important oilseed crop producing an uncommon oil with 90% riconoleic acid (12-hydroxyoleic acid, 18:1OH). The hydroxy group imparts unique chemical and physical properties that make castor oil a vital raw material for manufacturing numerous industrial products, such as high lubricity lubricants and greases, a variety of polymers traditionally made by petroleum-based products for various coatings, elastomers and plastics, and an array of castor oil derivatives utilized in cosmetic industry. Seed oil content and weight are important factors to castor oil production. Recurrent selection through screening single seed is an effective method to improve oil content in castor bean. Two cycles of recurrent selection increased the mean oil content of a castor cultivar from 50.33% to 54.47%, reaching levels comparable to those at the top 1% of 1,103 castor bean lines collected by USDA. As a consequent result, we found that seed weight was also increased after recurrent selection and the strong correlation uncovered between seed oil content and weight will allow further improvement of oil content by screening heavier or larger seeds in a population. Given that single seed recurrent selection was successful under field conditions, this method should be applicable to commercial castor bean crops.