Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
[
55
]. The crop is also being considered as a new crop in Argentina and was found to
also grow well in the cold and arid environments of Latin America along with its
sister species
P. mendocina
[
56
,
57
] and can be grown as a summer annual in
Ontario, Canada [
58
]. Research to test if
P. fendleri
can be grown commercially in
Europe is ongoing as part of the European Multilevel Integrated Biorefinery Design
for Sustainable Biomass Processing Project (EuroBioRef) [
59
]. It has been reported
that
P. fendleri
can be grown with less water and on poorer soils than castor
[
60
]. The crop can withstand mild water stress prior to flowering and still produce
maximum yields [
61
]. However, experiments that aim to determine optimal cultural
management practices outside the previously mentioned areas (Arizona, New
Mexico, Oregon, and Northern Mexico) are still lacking. The crop production and
management system for lesquerella was noted to be very similar to that of winter
wheat [
6
]. Wang et al. [
14
] published a primer for lesquerella production in Arizona
stating planting recommendations that include a planting rate of 7-11 lbs/acre (8-
12 kg/ha) with 400,000 plants/acre (988,420 plants/ha) for optimum seed yield
which averages at about 1,500 lbs/acre (1,681 kg/ha). The estimated seed yield in
other areas where lesquerella have been tested varies from 496 kg/ha in Southern
Oregon when planted in March [
54
] to 1,100 kg/ha in Northern Mexico when sown
in December [
55
].
Genetic Resources
Seed collection trips to acquire germplasm of targeted species of
Physaria
and
Paysonia
were first made in the 1960s. Currently, there are 240 germplasm acces-
sions available in the US National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS). One hundred
and twenty five of these are
P. fendleri
, and majority of these accessions were
collected during the period from 1993 until 2002 through trips supported by USDA-
ARS [
15
,
53
]. The geographic distribution of these collected germplasm with
information on average seed-oil content is shown in Fig.
14.2
. Only 17 species
and 21 accessions of
P. fendleri
were previously represented in the NPGS prior to
the USDA collecting effort [
62
]. The working seed collection from the former
breeding program at the USDA-ARS location in Maricopa, Arizona, still exists and
a duplicate germplasm collection maintained by a curator within the NPGS located
at the USDA-ARS National Arid Land Plant Genetic Resources Unit at Parlier,
California, who also conducts routine phenotypic characterization and germplasm
regeneration activities.
There are 413 accessions of 57
Lesquerella
and 17
Physaria
species already
collected. Phenotypic evaluations of germplasm available in the NPGS for HFA
and other fatty acids have been completed [
53
,
63
]. Characterization data on four
HFA (lesquerolic, densipolic, auricolic, and ricinoleic) as well as seven other the
fatty acids (palmitic, palmitoleic, stearic, oleic, linolenic, linoleic, and arachidic)
have been published [
63
]. It has been reported that the growth environmental
conditions affect the fatty acid profile of lesquerella, with other lesquerella species
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