Inheritance Of Erucic Acid In Rapeseed (Brassica Napus L.)

To detennine number and effects of genes that control erucic acid in rapeseed Brassica napus, two zero erucic acid cultivars were crossed with four cultivars containing various levels of erucic acid content (4.56% to 46.5%) including reciprocals. The erucic acid content of F1"s and their reciprocals was intennediate of parents indicating embryonic control of erucic acid and absence of maternal effect in inheritance of erucic acid in B. napus. Erucic acid content of F2 seeds segregated in to 5 classes 44% with a ratio of 1: 4: 6: 4: 1. Backcrosses seeds (BC1) derived from the F1× (zero erucic acid parents), segregated into three classes (44% erucic acid) with a ratio of 1: 2: 1. The segregation patterns in F2 and BC1 indicated that erucic acid content in B. napus was governed by two independent genes interacting in an additive manner. Pooled data analysis also conformed above results. Contributing of alleles of genes was not same. Alleles E1 and E2 in this study were equal to Ea and Eb that reported already.