Canola, Rapeseed, and Mustard: For Biofuels and Bioproducts - Industrial Crops: Breeding for BioEnergy and Bioproducts - page 139

Major Breeding Achievements
There have been numerous major breeding achievements in canola/rapeseed/mus-
tard in the last 40 years. Canadian canola/rapeseed/mustard breeders have been the
originators for many of these major breeding achievements. Canadian Brassica
breeders develop short-season spring habit canola/rapeseed/mustard crops that can
complete three complete growth cycles per year in the greenhouse. Canadian
canola/rapeseed/mustard breeders initially focused their attention on quality
improvements in Brassica crops to create high-quality, high-value crops for export
into competitive world markets. Many of the canola/rapeseed/mustard major breed-
ing achievements have been associated with oil and/or meal quality [ 43 ]. Major
breeding achievements in oil quality improvement include the development of low
erucic acid rapeseed (LEAR) B. napus and B. rapa varieties [ 10 ]. Low erucic acid
mustard ( B. juncea ) has also been developed in Australia [ 59 ]. Other oil quality
improvements include high oleic, low linolenic (HOLL) B. napus and high erucic
acid rapeseed in B. napus [ 43 ]. Meal quality improvement through reduction of
glucosinolates in B. napus and B. rapa occurred nearly simultaneously to the
reduction in erucic acid in the oil to create double low rapeseed [ 10 ]. Low erucic
acid, low glucosinolate rapeseed ( B. napus and B. rapa ), initially called double low
rapeseed, was renamed canola in Canada circa 1980 to distinguish it from rapeseed
[ 10 ]. B. napus rapeseed was the first species to be converted to canola (1974)
followed closely by B. rapa (1978) [ 10 ] and much later B. juncea (2002)
[ 11 ]. These oil and meal quality improvements created high-quality edible oil and
good quality meal for feed rations and are the major breeding achievements in
Brassica oilseeds that set this crop on its path of tremendous success in the last
40 years [ 10 ].
Brassica napus canola cultivars provided the foundation for oil profile modifi-
cations to better meet end-user requirements. A major breeding achievement has
been the development of high oleic acid, low linolenic acid content (HOLL) oil
profiles to create high-stability oil specialty canola in 1987 [ 60 ]. Major breeding
achievements in B. napus HEAR have also occurred where HEAR lines with 62-
64 % erucic acid content have been developed [ 61 ] and where the world's first
transgenic SHEAR line with 72 % erucic acid in the seed oil has been
developed [ 62 ].
While canola cultivars provided a source of edible vegetable oil and an industrial
source of oil for biofuels and bioproducts, a substantial market provided by
rapeseed ( B. napus and B. rapa ) continued unabated. Major breeding achievements
involved increasing erucic acid content to create high erucic acid rapeseed in
B. rapa (1975) [ 10 ] and then combining reduced glucosinolate content in the
meal with high erucic acid rapeseed in B. napus to create high erucic acid, low
glucosinolate B. napus rapeseed (HEAR) in 1982 [ 10 ].
The development of herbicide tolerance systems in canola/rapeseed/mustard in
B. napus and B. juncea has been a major breeding achievement beginning in the
1980s [ 63 ]. Several different herbicide tolerance systems in B. napus canola/