Beyond Oil: Molecular Breeding for Multifunctional Innovation in Oilseed Brassica

Abstract

Brassica napus L., one of the world’s most significant oilseeds, is experiencing a paradigm shift from a single-minded focus on edible oil production to a multifactorial approach centered on sustainable agriculture. This review synthesizes the progress in molecular breeding, which has enabled the development of multifunctional B. napus ideotypes. We discuss the genomic plasticity of the crop, based on the genomic mosaicism and allopolyploid origin, which provides a genetic reservoir basis of diversification. Contemporary approaches such as genomic selection, marker-assisted pyramiding, and multi-omics integration are considered in terms of their ability to maximize the properties of multifaceted trait networks, breaking historical trade-offs (e.g., yield vs. quality), and providing new value-added functions. Their success is evidenced by examples, including the development of ultra-high-oil cultivars and multi-colored ornamental varieties. We also describe emerging directions, such as engineering the root architecture of dual-purpose fodder and optimizing seed oil composition with single-cell omics. These molecular tools, combined with precision agriculture technologies, enable the realization of an integrated Agriculture-Processing-Tourism framework. B. napus can move beyond being a commodity and become a personalized crop, capable of fulfilling all three functions in bringing nutritional security, bio-economic diversification, and ecological resilience, and thus, the philosophy of the Grand Food Concept.

Keywords

Brassica napus / Molecular breeding / Multifunctional crop / Genomic selection / Sustainable agriculture

Statement of the Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in the Writing Process

During the preparation of this manuscript, the author(s) used Google Gemini AI tools to produce conceptual illustrative elements and icons only. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the article.

Author Contributions

Y.Z.: Writing—Original draft preparation, Formal analysis, Visualization. I.B. and A.A.: Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data Curation, Writing—original draft; K.Z., F.H., Y.S. and T.Q.: Validation, Investigation, Data Curation; Q.H., L.X., W.X. and W.Q.: Investigation, Validation; W.Z.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Resources, Writing—review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, funding acquisition. All authors agreed with the publication of the manuscript.

Ethics Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

All data presented in this study is available in the article and supplementary materials.

Funding

This study was funded by Science and Technology Department of Zhejiang Province (grant number 2023C02002-3), Agriculture and Rural Affairs Department of Zhejiang Province (grant number 2023ZDXT01), and Collaborative Innovation Center for Modern Crop Production co-sponsored by Province and Ministry (CIC-MCP).

Declaration of Competing Interest

Author Wu Qian is employed by Wenzhou Jiayou Seed Industry Co., Ltd., Wenzhou 325014, China. The authors declare that this company was not involved in the literature search strategy, data interpretation, manuscript writing, or the decision to publish. The commercial affiliation did not influence the review’s conclusions or the presentation of information.

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