Molecular regulation and genetic improvement of seed oil content in Brassica napus L.

Abstract

As an important oil crop and a potential bioenergy crop, Brassica napus L. is becoming a model plant for basic research on seed lipid biosynthesis as well as seed oil content, which has always been the key breeding objective. In this review, we present current progress in understanding of the regulation of oil content in B. napus, including genetics, biosynthesis pathway, transcriptional regulation, maternal effects and QTL analysis. Furthermore, the history of breeding for high oil content in B. napus is summarized and the progress in breeding ultra-high oil content lines is described. Finally, prospects for breeding high oil content B. napus cultivars are outlined.

Keywords

breeding / maternal effects / oilseed rape / QTL

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (2015CB150200), the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (2013AA102602), and the Industry Technology System of B. napus in China. We wish to express our thanks to Dr Ming Zheng for his contributions to the model Figure.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

The authors Wei Hua, Jing Liu, and Hanzhong Wang declare that they have not conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose.

This article is a review and does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2016. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)