Breeding of Zhongyouza 8, a Canola Variety with Large Seeds and High Oil Yield

Abstract

High oil yield resulted from a combination of high grain yield and high oil content is a prerequisite for the high efficient oilseed rape production. By using irradiation induced mutation and sexual hybridization combined with paired test cross, the fertility, yield and oil content of the three lines of cytoplasmic male sterility have been improved and a new hybrid variety Zhongyouza 8 with high oil yield was developed. It has been testified that the yield of Zhongyouza 8 was significantly higher than that of the control variety Zhongyou 821 with 9.82 and 10.64% increase in the regional trials of Hubei Province and nationwide, respectively. The oil content and oil yield of Zhongyouza 8 were the highest among all the lines involved in Hubei provincial trials, being 42.77% and 1051.05 kg ha −1 which was raised by 3% and 161.25 kg ha −1 compared to the control Zhongyou 821, respectively. The genetic basis for the strong heterosis, and the factors contributing to the yield and oil content increase of Zhongyouza 8 as well as the strategy for high oil yielding variety improvement through increasing seed size were also discussed in this paper.