Abstract
Cassava (Manihot esculenta, Crantz) is an important food security crop, but it is becoming an important raw material for different industrial applications. Cassava is the second most important source of starch worldwide. Novel starch properties are of interest to the starch industry, and one them is the recently identified amylose-free (waxy) cassava starch. Waxy mutants have been found in different crops and have been often associated with a yield penalty. There are ongoing efforts to develop commercial cassava varieties with amylose-free starch. However, little information is available regarding the biological and agronomic implications of starch mutations in cassava, nor in other root and tuber crops. In this study, siblings from eight full-sib families, segregating for the waxy trait, were used to determine if the mutation has implications for yield, dry matter content (DMC) and harvest index in cassava. A total of 87 waxy and 87 wild-type starch genotypes from the eight families were used in the study. The only significant effect of starch type was on DMC (p < 0.01), with waxy clones having a 0.8% lower content than their wild type counterparts. There was no effect of starch type on fresh root yield (FRY), adjusted FRY and harvest index. It is not clear if lower DMC is a pleiotropic effect of the waxy starch mutation or else the result of linked genes introgressed along with the mutation. It is expected that commercial waxy cassava varieties will have competitive FRYs but special efforts will be required to attain adequate DMCs. This study contributes to the limited knowledge available of the impact of starch mutations on the agronomic performance of root and tuber crops.
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Claims 4
Claim · model-written summary
Waxy clones had 0.8% lower dry matter content than wild type clones.
Verbatim
e0“The only significant effect of starch type was on DMC (p < 0.01), with waxy clones having a 0.8% lower content than their wild type counterparts.”
t0“Cassava”
Claim · model-written summary
Starch type did not affect fresh root yield, adjusted fresh root yield or harvest index.
- Taxon
- Cassava
Manihot esculentat0 - Material
- starch typee0
- Outcome
- fresh root yield (FRY), adjusted FRY and harvest indexe0
- Direction
- no effecte0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“There was no effect of starch type on fresh root yield (FRY), adjusted FRY and harvest index.”
t0“Cassava”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors expect commercial waxy cassava varieties to have competitive fresh root yields.
- Taxon
- cassavaManihot esculentae0
- Outcome
- competitive FRYse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“It is expected that commercial waxy cassava varieties will have competitive FRYs but special efforts will be required to attain adequate DMCs.”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors say special efforts will be required to attain adequate dry matter content in waxy cassava.
- Taxon
- cassavaManihot esculentae0
- Outcome
- special efforts will be required to attain adequate DMCse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“It is expected that commercial waxy cassava varieties will have competitive FRYs but special efforts will be required to attain adequate DMCs.”