Schriften zu Genetischen Ressourcen - Genres

Development and evaluation of a Brassica napus core collection
ssp. rapifera), the growth and generative characters were evaluated, viz. beginning
and end of flowering and harvest time. The Swede or rutabaga material to be included
in the core collection was evaluated earlier as a separate set at the Nordic
Gene Bank (Alnarp, Sweden).
Tab. 1: Differentiation of B. napus forms due to vernalisation requirement and
seasonality (excluding Swede or rutabaga types)
Winter hardiness Type Seasonal type Use Descriptor
286
perennial 5
Present biennis winter biannual oil 4
Not present
biennis winter annual forage 3
biennis summer annual forage 2
annua summer annual oil/forage 1
Seed quality analyses: In breeding of Brassica crops, the percentage of erucic acid
content in the seed oil and the glucosinolate content of the meal are very important
quality characteristics. The genebank accessions could be classified as follows:
1) high erucic acid-high glucosinolate (HEAR),
2) low erucic acid-high glucosinolate (LEAR),
3) high erucic acid-low glucosinolate, and
4) low erucic acid-low glucosinolate (double low quality, canola).
For seed quality analyses in each plot three to five plants were isolated with bags to
obtain seeds for fatty acid analysis, while the open-pollinated seed material was collected
for oil, protein and glucosinolate analysis by near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy
(NIRS).
The erucic acid content, which was determined in selfed seed material from individual
plants of accessions included in the spring trial, showed considerable variation
(Fig. 1). Following the differentiation of the material in HEAR and LEAR/canola types
in both major quality groups, off-types - low-erucic types in the HEAR group and high
erucic individuals in the LEAR/canola group, respectively - were observed. A similar
variation was found for the low-glucosinolate spring rape cultivar ‘Bronowski’, which
is known to have an erucic acid content of 8-10% and displayed a range of 0-35%
(cf. KRZYMANSKI and DOWNEY 1969, ANAND and DOWNEY 1981). The seed analyses
clearly demonstrate that the seed material obtained from different European gene-