Heterotic patterns in rapeseed (Brassica napus L.): II. Crosses between European winter and Chinese semi-winter lines

• Published in: Plant breeding Vol. 128; no. 5; pp. 466 - 470
• Main Authors: Qian, W, Li, Q, Noack, J, Sass, O, Meng, J, Frauen, M, Jung, C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Oxford, UK : Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.10.2009; Blackwell Publishing Ltd; Blackwell
• Subjects: Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Biological and medical sciences; Brassica napus; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; genetic distance; Genetics and breeding of economic plants; heterosis prediction; Heterosis. Floral biology applications: apomixy, male sterility, incompatibility, varia; heterotic pattern; Plant breeding: fundamental aspects and methodology; semi-winter rapeseed; winter rapeseed; heterotic pattern; Brassica napus var. oleifera; Prediction; Genetic distance; European; Heterosis; semi-winter rapeseed; winter rapeseed; Cruciferae; heterosis prediction; Dicotyledones; Winter crops; Angiospermae; Genetic improvement; Spermatophyta; Oil plant (vegetal)
• ISSN: 0179-9541; 1439-0523
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1439-0523.2008.01597.x

Chinese semi-winter rapeseed is genetically diverse from European winter rapeseed. Our objectives were (1) to evaluate the potential of semi-winter rapeseed for winter rapeseed hybrid breeding, (2) to assess the relative importance of general combining ability (GCA) vs. specific combining ability (SCA) among combinations between Chinese semi-winter and European winter rapeseed, and (3) to compare the strategies to predict heterosis based on parental genetic distance (GD) estimated from AFLP marker data and GCA for hybrid performance. Four winter male sterile lines from Germany as testers were crossed with 14 Chinese semi-winter rapeseed lines to develop 56 hybrids, which were evaluated together with their parents and commercial hybrids for seed yield, oil content and protein content under three environments in Germany. The Chinese parental lines were not adapted to local environmental conditions as demonstrated by lacking winter hardiness and poor seed yields per se. However, the hybrids between the Chinese parents and the adapted winter rapeseed lines exhibited high heterosis for seed yield. About 20% of the hybrids were significantly superior to the respective hybrid control under three environments. Additive gene effects mainly contributed to hybrid performance since the variance components of GCA were higher as compared with SCA. The correlation between parental GD and hybrid performance was found to be low whereas the correlation between GCA and hybrid performance was high and significant, with correlation coefficients of 0.95 for seed yield, 0.87 for oil content, and 0.91 for protein content, indicating that GCA can predict hybrid performance. These results demonstrate that Chinese semi-winter rapeseed germplasm has a great potential to increase seed yield in winter rapeseed hybrid breeding programmes in Europe.