Edwin Mendez
Plant Breeding

Rapeseed is obtained from the species of Brassica, member to the Cruciferae
(Brassicaceae), and within the genus of some 160 species, mainly annual and biannual herbs (Weiss, 1983) .
In Latin, the name rape translated into rapum meaning turnip .
There are two types of rapeseed the Argentine rape, Brassica napus, also know as the winter rape and the Polish rape, Brassica campestris (rapa) also know as the summer rape .
Brassica napus and Brassica campestris are the most important as commercial oilseed producers in the Cruciferae family .
Although the origin of rape is not specifically identified in text, most scientists believe that rape originated in the Eurasian area, which includes India, China, and Japan .
The earliest recorded history of this crop dates back to 2000 B .
C .
A proposed secondary center of origin is Turko-Iranian region .
In the Middle ages the most important use of rapeseed was oil for lamps in northern Europe (Weiss, 1983) .
During this time the oil from rapeseed was mainly used for lighting .
It was only the poor that used rape oil as an edible oil .
The oil was also used in soap making .
In the nineteenth century with the introduction of other sources of oils such as petroleum, the cultivation or rape decreased in western Europe, but increased in eastern Europe .
There was no significant increase or decrease in production of rapeseed in Europe up until the 1940s .
Since then it has become one of Europe’s most important oilseed crop .
The initial used of rapeseed was mainly for industrial uses such as lighting, soaps, and lubrication .

Rapeseed for edible purposes was not fully exploited by western nations until the end of World War II .
Rapeseed varieties containing low erucic acid oils enhance its use as and edible oil .
The mark of the western-based industry was made when Canada extracted edible oil in 1956 (Downey, Klassen, and McAnsh, 1974) .
Leftovers from oil production were used as livestock feed .
The edible oil from rapeseed is known as Canola oil .
Today over 13 .
2% of the world’s edible oil comes from the oilseed Brassicas
(Robbelem, 1989) .
The areas of production of rapeseed have changed thought history .
For many years the number one producer of rapeseed was Canada but that is not true today .
In recent years China has become the world’s largest producer of rapeseed producing 12 .
6 million metric tons in 2006 (FAOSTAT 2006) .
Second in world production of rapeseed is Canada with Indian, Germany and France rounding off the world’s top five producers .
World production of rapeseed is currently around 45 .
9 million metric tons (FAOSTAT
2006) .
Unlike other oil crops the main breeding objective of rapeseed has always been

with breeding to increase seed quality .
Breeding for seed quality usually means breeding for better quality oil and breeding for low or high acid concentrations .
The average oil content in rapeseed ranges from 36 to 50 %. Improvement of oil content is an important goal due to the primary economic value of the oil component and its relatively high heritability .
However, breeding for high yield is not ignored .
Improvement of productivity also includes several parameters such as early maturing resistance to frost or cold, resistance to diseases, resistance to pest, and resistance to lodging .
Rapeseed is in the family Cruciferae (Brassicaceae), Genus Brassica .
Both
Brassica napus and Brassica campestris(rapa) are consider rapeseeds .
Common names of
B .
napus and B .
campestris include rape and rapeseed .
The relationship between species in the Cruciferae family can be explain by well-know triangle of U(Murphy, 1994) .
The triangle includes 6 species .
Three amphidiploid species, B .
napus (AACC, 2n=4x=34), B .
juncea (AABB, 2n=4x=36) and B .
carinata (BBCC, 2n=4x=34) .
The amphidiploid species likely originated in nature form diploid ancestors through unidirectional hybridization followed by spontaneous chromosome doubling (Murphy, 1994) .
Three diploid species are orientated at the corners of the triangle, B .
nigra (BB, 2n=16), B .
rapa
(AA, 2n=20), and B .
oleracea (CC, 2n=18) .
The triangle represents the interspecific hybridization between species of the Brassica family .
Combination of B .
rapa (AA, n=10) and B .
Oleracea (CC, n=9) forms, gives rise to B .
napus .

Genetic variation of B .
napus and B .
carinata, which do not occur in the wild, the polyphyletic origin of B. juncea has given rise to large morphotypic variation and goes back to ancient times at least in the Middle East and India (Murphy, 1994) .
It is most likely that most genetic variation of B .
napus is in the Mediterranean region, the area of overlap between the more widely distributed B .
rapa and B .
olearacea (Murphy, 1994) .
Germplasm collection of Brassica species is also available research stations in India .
Genetic collection of rapeseed can also be found in other areas such as China, India and
Japan .
Indigenous collections and cultivated varieties can also be a source of genetic variability .
Rapeseed does well in a wide range of soil types, but for optimal performance it prefers loamy soils .
Rapeseed nutrients requirements are vary similar to those cereals .
The main differences are that rapeseed required higher amounts of nitrogen .
Studies have been done to examine the plant density of this crop .
A spacing of 15 cm between rows is optimal .
Spacing between each plant should be between 10 and 20 cm .
There was no significant difference between plant spacing .
Rapeseed should be given full sunlight with below 25° C of day temperature .
Depending on variety and time of sowing, rapeseed can be grown as annuals or biennials .
Rapeseed grown in greenhouses can be lit with mercury light to provide a 16 hour day-length .
Green house day temperature should be kept 21 ± 5°C .
Most production of

rapeseed is done in the field .
Rapeseed produces yellow nectar-bearing flowers, which are able of both selffertilization and intraspecific cross-fertilization .
Honeybees are the primary pollinators of rapeseed .
The flowers contain 4 petals .
The pods are located 18 inches above the crown to the top of the pant, they average from 1 to 1 1/2 inches long, and they contain the seeds .
The leaves are mainly originated towards the base of the plant .
The leaves can be described as large green board leaves .
The plant as a whole can grow 2 to 4 feet tall with branching form the central stem .
Programs in breeding for Brassica oil crops have always been connected with dire improvements of seed quality .
Public breeding programs do the majority of Brassica oil seed breeding .
According to the long-term and short-term goals of the breeding program, there are many different procedures breeders can use to develop a desire trait such as; haploid techniques such as microspore culture for the production of doubled-haploid lines, wide hybridizations using embryo rescue techniques, or protoplast fusion (Fried and Lühs, 1999) .
Once a desirable trait has been identified crossing, breeding selection, and testing may take place .
The majority of rapeseed cultivars are pure line derived from

pedigree selection breeding or modified pedigree selection .
The majority of Brassica oil seed breeding is done by public breeding programs .
The initial step in forming a breeding program is to generate a wide arrange of germplasm that will contribute to desired new species .
For rapeseed species a germplasm can be formed by collecting rapeseeds from genebanks, broaden the genetic basis in the production or resynthesized rapeseed by crossing the original ancestors (Fried and Lühs,
1999), collecting cultivated species or searching the proposed origin .
After gathering wide germplasm, hybridization may occur .
The optimum planting date for rapeseed should occur in mid-August .
To produce a F1 hybrid, parent
(1) and parent (2) containing solely a desired genotype are planted within pollination proximity .
In this case the A-genome plant and a C-genome plant should be between 10-
20 cm between plants and 15 cm between rows .
The parents must cross in order to produce a desired progeny .
Brassica species can be self-pollinated or cross-pollinated, but in order to get desired traits in the progeny self-pollination must be prevented (Fried and Lühs, 1999) .
Several cytoplasmic male sterility lines have been developed in Brassica species through alloplasmic types .
Harvest for the first generation can begin when the pods on the plant become yellow and the seeds become dark, the seeds will become lose withing the pod .
Pollen must be transferred between parent (1) and parent (2) .
Pollen distribution can be accomplished by insects such as bumblebees, or artificially pollinating .
If pollen is to be collected it should be used immediately .
In artificial pollination, pollen of rapeseeds

should not be stored for prolonged periods of times .
Seeds are then gathered from both parents .
The F1 progeny should exceed desired characteristics of both parents if selfpollination was avoided .
Planting can be done mostly any time of the year 6 weeks before a frost but optimal is mid-August .
The F1 generation may occur at this point, space between each plant should be sufficient enough to examine if you are using a pedigree selection .
Plants that have been observed to be self-pollinated should be disregarded .
Selection for improved plant should occur at this stage .
Backcrossing can also be done at this point in the breeding program if a dominate allele is present in desired plant .
In the F2 generation plant a sufficient amount of crops in order to allow plants to be individually examine and select superior plants .
The following generations should consist of field testing, comparison between generations, testing in different locations, and identifying traits in progenies .
Thought biotechnology, molecular markers are a way to identify if the desired gene was inherited onto the new hybrid .
Using DNA based marker such as RFLP,
RAPDs, SSR, PCR, AFLP, or SNPs one can identify and monitor at the genetic level if the trait desired was inherited .
Some of the more common molecular markers used for
Brassica oils are RFLP and RAPDs .
Biotechnology also allows specific methods of introducing new genes into a crop gene .
In Brassica oil crops specific biotechnology techniques used to introduce new genes into a crop include; recombinant DNA, chemical mutagenesis, and screening .
After years of testing, analyzing, and breeding the new hybrid can finally be

released .
One of the most common breeding techniques in Brassica species is the use of double haploid techniques .
Double haploids enable breeders to develop completely homozygous genotypes from heterozygous parent in single generation .
In a rapeseed, double haploids are produced from F1 hybrids by means of chromosomal doubling .
By the R3 generation yield test and field selections are made by identifying desirable combination of characters .
This method allows release of new Brassica oilseed cultivars within two years as opposed to conventional breeding methods .
In studies done by the Division and Plant Breeding Program in the Czech
Republic, two types of creating double haploids were examine .
Creating double haploids by spontaneous haploids were analyze in terms of the advantages of double haploids and practical uses of double haploids .
Creating double haploids by In vitro androgenesis was also examined in their breeding program .
Double haploids using spontaneous haploids are done acquiring natural occurring haploids found in some rapeseed cultivars and treating it with colchicine .
The treatment of colchicines develops haploid line into a completely double haploid line .
This method of double haploids reached approx .
11% higher oil yield than parent cultivar (Kucera,
Vyadilova, and Klima, 2002) .

Douple haploids using In vitro androgenesis are produce from anther culture .
This technique is used by inducing cell division and embryo formation in pollen cells .
After plantlet formation the rapeseed plant is take and colchicine treated .
Advantages of using double haploid in oilseed rape breeding consist primarily in substantially reduced time to produce and release cultivars (Kucera, Vyadilova, and
Klima, 2002) .
Using double haploids techniques in rapeseed breeding can reduce the amount of time to produce a cultivar by nearly half as opposed to conventional breeding .

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