Use of Rutabaga (Brassica napus var. napobrassica) for the Improvement of Canadian Spring Canola (Brassica napus).

Spring oilseed Brassica napus L., commonly known as canola, has become the cornerstone of agricultural production in western Canada, with total acreage seeded increasing in each production year.  However, the narrow genetic base of spring B. napus, coupled with ever-increasing acres has led to emergence of  the obligate parasite Plasmodiophora brassicae, commonly known as clubroot, on the canola production areas. Brassica napus var. napobrassica, or Rutabaga, is a biennial fodder-type Brassica species that has potential to serve as not only a source of new genetic diversity for B. napus, but provide strong resistance to P. brassicae pathotypes prevalent in the canola fields in western Canada.  Research compared two advanced generation populations, a F₂ derived population (Rutabaga-BF × A07-26NR) and a 3-way cross population [(A07-45NR ×Rutabaga-BF) × A07-26NR).  Both A07-26NR and A07-45NR are spring type B. napus lines developed at the University of Alberta (U of A), and Rutabaga-BF is a clubroot resistant rutabaga line obtained from the U of A’s germplasm collection.  These two populations were evaluated for different agronomic and  seed quality traits including resistance to clubroot pathotypes native to western Canada, and genetic diversity by the use of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers to determine the usefulness of rutabaga as a source of germplasm to broaden genetic diversity and increase productivity in Canadian spring type B. napus canola.