Effect of genotype and environment on fatty acid composition of Lupinus albus L. seed

Six cultivars of Lupinus albus L. (white lupin) were grown in two subcontinental-climate environments and one Mediterranean-climate environment in Italy, to assess the influence of genotypic (G) and genotype × environment (GE) interaction effects on grain yield and grain content of oil, total saturated fatty acids (FAs), polyunsaturated FAs, monounsaturated FAs, and ω−3/ω−6 FA ratio. The variance of genotypic effects was much larger than the GE interaction variance for all variables, except for grain yield, indicating that oil content and FA composition of different varieties can be assessed reliably in just a few test environments. Gas-chromatographic analyses highlighted that linoleic acid and α-linolenic acid were in the range 1.76–4.76 mg/g flour (7.79–15.81% of total FAs) and 1.17–3.14 mg/g flour (5.40–10.36% of total FAs), respectively. As a consequence, the analysed lupin seeds exhibited a very favourable ω−3/ω−6 FA ratio, ranging from 0.49 to 0.79.