Development of germplasm resource to dissect complex traits in Brassica napus

The Challenge

Many challenges still present themselves when growing canola due to diverse environmental conditions which can be contributed to little genetic diversity from the Brassica napus germplasm.

The Project

Develop a foundational resource for canola crop improvement: a nested association mapping (NAM) population for spring type B.napus that will target adaptation to Prairie conditions.

The Results

Composed a NAM population of 2500 recombinant inbred lines, in addition to phenotyping parental lines and their progeny which provided a detailed picture of their genetic composition.

Grower Benefits

This knowledge will be used to analyze the introduction of traits such drought and heat stress, root-soil interactions, seed dormancy and verticillium resistance into commercially available canola varieties.