Genetic analysis of shoot regeneration from cotyledonary explants in Brassica napus

Genetic analysis of shoot regeneration from cotyledonary explants of Brassica napus was carried out by 7×7 diallel crosses using cultivars showing a different ability for regeneration. Both additive and dominant effects were significant, with the additive effect being more important than the dominant one. Dominant genes had a positive effect on shoot regeneration. Non-allelic interaction and average maternal effects were not detected, while specific the maternal one was significant. In the 5×5 sub-diallel table, the maternal effect became nonsignificant. The mean degree of dominance was 0.759. Broad- and narrow-sense heritabilities were 0.973 and 0.819, respectively, indicating that shoot regenera- tion ability can be easily transferred into economically important cultivars showing a low or an unresponsive ability.