Exploitation of European Winter Canola (Brassica napus L.) for the Improvement of Canadian Spring Canola.

Exploitation of European winter canola (Brassica napus L.) for the improvement of Canadian spring canola

 

M. Habibur Rahman*, Céline Zimmerli, Berisso Kebede

 

Dept. of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science,

University of Alberta, 410 Agriculture/Forestry Centre, Edmonton, AB T6G 2P5, Canada

E-mail: habibur.rahman@ualberta.ca

 

 ABSTRACT

The need of broadening genetic diversity in oilseed Brassica napus has been suggested by several researchers due to narrow genetic base in current cultivars. Analysis of genetic diversity based on different molecular markers revealed that the European winter B. napus germplasm is genetically diverse from spring B. napus. Possible use of winter B. napus in the breeding of spring B. napus hybrid cultivar has been demonstrated by several researchers. We investigated the potential of using European winter canola B. napus in spring canola breeding programs for broadening the genetic diversity as well as for increased seed yield and improved agronomic properties of spring B. napus lines. For this several crosses were made between European winter and Canadian spring types, and DH and pedigree breeding was followed. Spring type B. napus lines with significantly greater seed yield were achieved from both DH and pedigree breeding. Genetic diversity was investigated in spring type DH lines derived from two crosses involving two winter and one spring parent. Based on 134 SSR markers from 19 linkage groups, genetic similarity between the two winter parents was estimated to be 0.49, whereas it was only 0.27 between the spring and the two winter parents. Thirty seven selected polymorphic markers were tested on the DH populations derived from these two crosses, which detected a total of 94 alleles. Occurrence of the alleles from the winter parent ranged from 13.8 to 59.9% in these DH lines. Estimates of genetic similarity based on UPGMA and PCoA analysis clearly depicted a group of DH lines falling close to the winter type. Thus, we demonstrate that introgression of genetic diversity from winter type into spring type B. napus is an important approach to broaden the genetic base and productivity of Canadian spring canola B. napus.