Genetic analyses of agronomic and seed quality traits of doubled haploid population in Brassica napus through microspore culture

The results showed that the F1 genotype from the cross (Brassica napus cv. Zheshuang 758 × cv. Z-4115) had good response to embryogenesis, and their embryo yield and rate of plant regeneration reached 69.8 embryo/bud and 46.9%, respectively. Characters from the doubled haploid (DH) populations in B. napus were analyzed and it was showed that the means of each agronomic trait were between their parents, but they were nearer to the paternal in 6 agronomic traits (plant height, branch position, number of pods in the main raceme, length of pod, number of pods/plant and number of seeds/pod). The number of genes controlling each agronomic trait was analyzed based on the DH populations. The results showed that the number of genes controlling number of pods in the main raceme was the highest (15.6), and the least number of genes was involved for stem width (only 7.9). According to estimated coefficients of skewness and kurtosis of the traits tested, gene interaction was found to be absent for stem width, plant height, length of main raceme, number of primary and secondary branches, pod density in the main raceme and seed weight/plant. Complementary interaction was also observed in five agronomic traits (number of pods in the main raceme, length of pod, number of pods/plant, number of seeds/pod and 1000-seed weight). A significantly positive correlation was observed between seed yield/plant and four agronomic traits (length of main raceme, length of pod, number of pods/plant and 1000-seed weight). The experiment also showed that the erucic acid, glucosinolate, oil and protein contents of DH populations were 34.23%, 87.09 μmol/g, 44.09% and 42.67%, respectively. The numbers of genes controlling each quality trait were 7.8, 9.7, 9.4 and 8.7, respectively. Partial correlations between the seed quality traits and the agronomic characters of DH populations were analyzed. In this experiment, the partial correlations among seed quality traits were also analyzed and it was found that the oil content had a negative correlation with the other three seed quality traits.