Determination of camelina seed weight using near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy

Camelina (Camelina sativa (L.) Crtz.) is a potential industrial oilseed crop from the Brassicaceae family. The interest in this species is due to favorable agronomic characteristics and a high linolenic acid content of its seed oil. In breeding lines of camelina with different seed size, near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) was used to develop calibrations for determination of 1000-seed weight. A maximum correlation between actual and predicted seed weight of r=0.973 was obtained by a partial least square regression procedure in the calibration set. In a validation set of 40 unknown samples, the correlation between actual and predicted seed weight was r=0.922. Absorbance at near-infrared wavelengths in the range of 2100 to 2348 nm played a major role in the prediction of seed weight. The present results suggest that NIRS can be used for rapid and non-destructive determination of both seed weight and oil content in camelina breeding lines.