Abstract
Plants are extremely versatile organisms that respond to the environment in which they find themselves, but a large part of their development is under genetic regulation. The links between developmental parameters and yield are poorly understood in oilseed rape; understanding this relationship will help growers to predict their yields more accurately and breeders to focus on traits that may lead to yield improvements. To determine the relationship between seed yield and other agronomic traits, we investigated the natural variation that already exists with regards to resource allocation in 37 lines of the crop species Brassica napus. Over 130 different traits were assessed; they included seed yield parameters, seed composition, leaf mineral analysis, rates of pod and leaf senescence and plant architecture traits. A stepwise regression analysis was used to model statistically the measured traits with seed yield per plant. Above-ground biomass and protein content together accounted for 94.36% of the recorded variation. The primary raceme area, which was highly correlated with yield parameters (0.65), provides an early indicator of potential yield. The pod and leaf photosynthetic and senescence parameters measured had only a limited influence on seed yield and were not correlated with each other, indicating that reproductive development is not necessarily driving the senescence process within field-grown B. napus. Assessing the diversity that exists within the B. napus gene pool has highlighted architectural, seed and mineral composition traits that should be targeted in breeding programmes through the development of linked markers to improve crop yields.
Highlights
Crop yield is a complex trait determined by a number of contributing environmental and genetic factors
The diversity trials performed as part of the Oilseed RapE Genetic Improvement Network (OREGIN) project [30,31] sampled in the current study provided a robust basis to begin modelling, as they represent the genetic diversity that exists across the domesticated B. napus gene pool, providing a useful insight into direct future breeding programmes
N treatment did not segregate the dataset into two distinct groups according to yield; some varieties grown on low N had higher yield than others grown on high nitrogen and vice versa (Figure 1a)
Summary
Crop yield is a complex trait determined by a number of contributing environmental and genetic factors. Models exist for the three major cereal crops grown worldwide (rice, wheat and maize) [1,2,3], and all aim to predict yield in the face of environmental or genetic variation. Crops such as oilseed rape (canola, rapeseed, colza) are of increasing economic importance, yet they have an indeterminate growth habit compared to cereals, having been domesticated for only 4000 years compared to the 10,000 years for wheat, and require a dedicated approach in order to determine yield components that are of use to growers and breeders. Several models of yield prediction in oilseed rape have been generated previously [4,5,6,7,8]
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