As seed oil content (OC) is a key measure of rapeseed quality, better understanding the genetic basis of OC would greatly facilitate the breeding of high-oil cultivars. Here, we investigated the components of genetic effects and genotype × environment interactions (GE) that govern OC using a full diallel set of nine parents, which represented a wide range of the Chinese rapeseed cultivars and pure lines with various OCs. Our results from an embryo-cytoplasm-maternal (GoCGm) model for diploid seeds showed that OC was primarily determined by genetic effects (VG) and GE (VGE), which together accounted for 86.19% of the phenotypic variance (VP). GE (VGE) alone accounted for 51.68% of the total genetic variance, indicating the importance of GE interaction for OC. Furthermore, maternal variance explained 75.03% of the total genetic variance, embryo and cytoplasmic effects accounted for 21.02% and 3.95%, respectively. We also found that the OC of F1 seeds was mainly determined by maternal effect and slightly affected by xenia. Thus, the OC of rapeseed was simultaneously affected by various genetic components, including maternal, embryo, cytoplasm, xenia and GE effects. In addition, general combining ability (GCA), specific combining ability (SCA), and maternal variance had significant influence on OC. The lines H2 and H1 were good general combiners, suggesting that they would be the best parental candidates for OC improvement. Crosses H3 × M2 and H1 × M3 exhibited significant SCA, suggesting their potentials in hybrid development. Our study thoroughly investigated and reliably quantified various genetic factors associated with OC of rapeseed by using a full diallel and backcross and reciprocal backcross. This findings lay a foundation for future genetic studies of OC and provide guidance for breeding of high-oil rapeseed cultivars.

The Polima (pol) system of cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) and its fertility restoration gene Rfp have been used in hybrid breeding in Brassica napus, which has greatly improved the yield of rapeseed. However, the mechanism of the male sterility transition in pol CMS remains to be determined. To investigate the transcriptome during the male sterility transition in pol CMS, a near-isogenic line (NIL) of pol CMS was constructed. The phenotypic features and sterility stage were confirmed by anatomical analysis. Subsequently, we compared the genomic expression profiles of fertile and sterile young flower buds by RNA-Seq. A total of 105,481,136 sequences were successfully obtained. These reads were assembled into 112,770 unigenes, which composed the transcriptome of the bud. Among these unigenes, 72,408 (64.21%) were annotated using public protein databases and classified into functional clusters. In addition, we investigated the changes in expression of the fertile and sterile buds; the RNA-seq data showed 1,148 unigenes had significantly different expression and they were mainly distributed in metabolic and protein synthesis pathways. Additionally, some unigenes controlling anther development were dramatically down-regulated in sterile buds. These results suggested that an energy deficiency caused by orf224/atp6 may inhibit a series of genes that regulate pollen development through nuclear-mitochondrial interaction. This results in the sterility of pol CMS by leading to the failure of sporogenous cell differentiation. This study may provide assistance for detailed molecular analysis and a better understanding of pol CMS in B. napus.

Drought stress is one of the major abiotic factors affecting Brassica napus (B. napus) productivity. In order to identify genes of potential importance to drought stress and obtain a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms regarding the responses of B. napus to dehydration stress, we performed large-scale transcriptome sequencing of B. napus plants under dehydration stress using the Illumina sequencing technology. In this work, a relatively drought tolerant B. napus line, Q2, identified in our previous study, was used. Four cDNA libraries constructed from mRNAs of control and dehydration-treated root and leaf were sequenced by Illumina technology. A total of 6018 and 5377 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in root and leaf. In addition, 1745 genes exhibited a coordinated expression profile between the two tissues under drought stress, 1289 (approximately 74%) of which showed an inverse relationship, demonstrating different regulation patterns between the root and leaf. The gene ontology (GO) enrichment test indicated that up-regulated genes in root were mostly involved in “stimulus” “stress” biological process, and activated genes in leaf mainly functioned in “cell” “cell part” components. Furthermore, a comparative network related to plant hormone signal transduction and AREB/ABF, AP2/EREBP, NAC, WRKY and MYC/MYB transcription factors (TFs) provided a view of different stress tolerance mechanisms between root and leaf. Some of the DEGs identified may be candidates for future research aimed at detecting drought-responsive genes and will be useful for understanding the molecular mechanisms of drought tolerance in root and leaf of B. napus.

Background: The aerial parts of land plants are covered with cuticular waxes that limit non-stomatal water loss and gaseous exchange, and protect plants from ultraviolet radiation and pathogen attack. This is the first report on the characterization and genetic mapping of a novel dominant glossy mutant (BnaA.GL) in Brassica napus. Results: Transmission electron microscopy revealed that the cuticle ultrastructure of GL mutant leaf and stem were altered dramatically compared with that of wide type (WT). Scanning electron microscopy corroborated the reduction of wax on the leaf and stem surface. A cuticular wax analysis of the GL mutant leaves further confirmed the drastic decrease in the total wax content, and a wax compositional analysis revealed an increase in aldehydes but a severe decrease in alkanes, ketones and secondary alcohols. These results suggested a likely blockage of the decarbonylation step in the wax biosynthesis pathway. Genetic mapping narrowed the location of the BnaA.GL gene to the end of A9 chromosome. A single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chip assay in combination with bulk segregant analysis (BSA) also located SNPs in the same region. Two SNPs, two single sequence repeat (SSR) markers and one IP marker were located on the flanking region of the BnaA.GL gene at a distance of 0.6 cM. A gene homologous to ECERIFERUM1 (CER1) was located in the mapped region. A cDNA microarray chip assay revealed coordinated down regulation of genes encoding enzymes of the cuticular wax biosynthetic pathway in the glossy mutant, with BnCER1 being one of the most severely suppressed genes. Conclusions: Our results indicated that surface wax biosynthesis is broadly affected in the glossy mutant due to the suppression of the BnCER1 and other wax-related genes. These findings offer novel clues for elucidating the molecular basis of the glossy phenotype.