RESEARCH PAPER
Broadening the variability of quality traits in rapeseed through interspecific hybridization with an application of immature embryo culture

Interspecific hybridization is an important tool to transfer characters across species and develop synthetic amphidiploids,

and therefore it has been widely applied for improving Brassica spp. The aim of our study was to determine

whether the interspecific crosses can help increase the range of variability of traits connected with

the higher value of rapeseed. An attempt was also made to investigate the environmental influence on the studied

traits. For this reason, in our experiments, crosses between male sterile line of F8 generation and B. campestris

ssp. sarson, Yellow sarson; B. campestris ssp. pekinensis; B. carinata and B. juncea were first attempted. Thereafter,

hybrid seeds of 96 lines obtained by crossing Brassica napus male sterile line MS8 with three other Brassica

species were tested for fiber and glucosinolates content using near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS).

Moreover, chromatography and spectrophotometric measurements of sinapine and tocopherols contents in those

seeds were made. On the basis of the obtained results, it was found that all tested hybrid lines showed a great

increase of variability for the studied quality traits when compared to the parental forms. As a result of our

analyses, reduced glucosinolates hybrid lines were selected.