Analysis of developmental genetic effects from embryo, cytoplasm and maternal plant for oleic and linoleic acid contents of rapeseed

Abstract

SUMMARYThe genetic effects, including genetic main effects and genotype×environment (G×E) interaction effects, for oleic acid content (OAC) and linoleic acid content (LAC) at five different developmental times/stages were studied using unconditional and conditional genetic models for seed quantitative traits in diploid plants. The unconditional analysis results revealed that both OAC and LAC were simultaneously controlled by diploid embryo nuclear genes, cytoplasmic genes and diploid maternal plant nuclear genes and their G×E interaction effects. Effects on the embryo and cytoplasm were found to be more important for OAC at different developmental times while maternal effects, in combination with cytoplasmic effects, were more important for LAC at most development times. The conditional analysis revealed that the net effect from expression of maternal genes was more important for both traits at most developmental stages. The total narrow-sense heritability was high for both OAC and LAC, with general heritabilities being more visible for OAC and G×E interaction heritability being more important for LAC at most development times. The predicted genetic effects indicated that while most parents (with the exception of Youcai 601, Zhongyou 821 and Eyouchangjia) could be used for improving OAC of offspring, Double 20-4 was the most appropriate for improving LAC due to its better stability and positive values across environments at most development times.