Genetic analyses of agronomic and seed quality traits of synthetic oilseed Brassica napus produced from interspecific hybridization of B. campestris and B. oleracea

The heritability, the number of segregating genes and the type of gene interaction of nine agronomic traits were analysed based on F-2 populations of synthetic oilseed Brassica napus produced from interspecific hybridization of B. campestris and B. oleracea through ovary culture. The nine traits-plant height, stem width, number of branches, length of main raceme, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, length of pod, seed weight per plant and 1000-seed weight-had heritabilities of 0.927, 0.215, 0.172, 0.381, 0.360, 0.972, 0.952, 0.516 and 0.987 respectively, while the mean numbers of controlling genes for these characters were 7.4, 10.4, 9.9, 12.9, 11.5, 21.7, 20.5, 19.8 and 6.4 respectively. According to estimated coefficients of skewness and kurtosis of the traits tested, no significant gene interaction was found for plant height, stem width, number of branches, length of main raceme, number of seeds per pod and 1000-seed weight. Seed yield per plant is an important target for oilseed production. In partial correlation analysis, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod and 1000-seed weight were positively correlated with seed yield per plant. On the other hand, length of pod was negatively correlated (r = -0.69) with seed yield per plant. Other agronomic characters had no significant correlation to seed yield per plant. In this experiment, the linear regressions of seed yield per plant and other agronomic traits were also analysed. The linear regression equation was y = 0.074x(8) + 1.819x(9) + 6.72x(12) - 60.78 (R-2 = 0.993), where x(8), x(9) and x(12) represent number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod and 1000-seed weight respectively. The experiment also showed that erucic acid and oil contents of seeds from F2 plants were lower than those of their maternal parents. However, glucosinolate content was higher than that of the maternal plants. As for protein content, similar results were found in the F2 plants and their maternal parents. It was shown that the four quality traits, i.e. erucic acid, glucosinolate, oil content, and protein content, had heritability values of 0.614, 0.405, 0.153 and 0.680 respectively.