Recent developments and perspectives of industrial rapeseed breeding

Abstract

Due to substantial progress in breeding and cultivation practice rapeseed has become the world's third most important source of vegetable oil. Modification of the fatty acid composition to make rapeseed oil more competitive in various segments of the food and industrial oil markets has been an important objective of plant breeding and molecular genetics in recent years. While making up the primary demand by food and animal feed industry furnished by “double-low” quality rapeseed, so-called “canola”, interest increased to produce “Biodiesel” feedstocks or special materials being directed to several industrial niche markets, because of their higher value than commodity oils. Rapeseed oil is unique in having a large spectrum of usability and good properties for non-food applications, such as relatively homogeneous composition, high degree of refinement, freedom from contaminants, and also biodegradability, giving it advantages over petrochemicals. Consequently, one of the most important objectives of rapeseed breeding is the genetic modification of the seed oil by maximizing the proportion of specific fatty acids, like laurate, erucate or functionalized acids, in order to obtain tailor-made raw materials suited for industrial purposes.