DEVELOPMENT OF YELLOW SEEDED BRASSICA-NAPUS THROUGH INTERSPECIFIC CROSSES

Yellow seeded Brassica napus was developed through interspecific cross es with the two mustard species, B. juncea and B. carinata. The object ive of these two interspecific crosses was the introgression of genes for yellow seed colour from the A genome of B. juncea and C genome of B. carinata into the A and C genomes of B. napus, respectively. The in terspecific F1 generations were backcrossed to B. napus in an attempt to eliminate B genome chromosomes and to improve fertility. Backcross F2 plants of the (B. napus x B. juncea) x B. napus cross were then cro ssed with backcross F2 plants of the (B. napus x B. carinata) x B. nap us cross. The objective of this intercrossing was to combine the A and C genome yellow seeded characteristics of the two backcross populatio ns into one genotype. The F2 generation of the backcross F2 intercross es was grown in the field, plants were individually harvested and visu ally rated for seed colour. Ninety-one yellow seeded plants were ident ified among the 4858 plants inspected. This result indicated that the interspecific crossing scheme was successful in developing yellow seed ed B. napus.