New progress on genetic enhancement for high oil in rapeseed

A team led by Wang Hanzhong at the OCRI-CAAS has discovered different mechanisms of regulating oil content in rapeseed and identified four high oil genetic resources and six genes with novel function. The team has also created a new rapeseed line, YN171, with an oil content as 64.8 percent which is the highest record in the world. They have also developed five new rapeseed cultivars including Zhongshuang 11 that possesses improved characters such as high oil content, strong resistance to pod shattering and plant lodgging, resistance to Sclerotinia rot, low erucic acid, low glucosinolates and adaptation to mechanized harvesting. The improved high oil rapeseed cultivars have been extensively cultivated in production, and the related research progress has been awarded by central government.