MINERAL CONTENT VARIATION IN OAT GENOTYPES GROWN IN DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS

Abstract

The nutritive benefits of oat for both human food and animal feeding encourage oat breeding efforts to improve new cultivars for different locations. In this study, mineral element concentrations in grains of twenty-five oat genotypes were determined in six different environments. Genotype, environment and genotype x environment interactions had extremely important effects on mineral element concentration of oat grains. The oat genotypes exhibited significant variations in potassium (3676.47-4470.09 mg kg(-1)), phosphorus (2195.92-3559.13 mg kg(-1)), magnesium (1177.21-1369.95 mg kg(-1)), calcium (872.58-942.48 mg kg(-1)), sodium (158.31-238.43 mg kg(-1)), iron (42.36-67.53 mg kg(-1)), zinc (27.53-35.08 mg kg(-1)), manganese (31.82-41.83 mg kg(-1)) and copper (4.91-5.92 mg kg(-1)). The G2, G8, G9, G16, G20 and Kahraman genotypes generally had above-average values for all elements. Also, almost all investigated elements were the highest around E2 environment. This variation of different mineral element contents present in the oat genetic resources can be used as a source to improve the nutritional content of oat in breeding programmes.