Canola, Rapeseed, and Mustard: For Biofuels and Bioproducts - Industrial Crops: Breeding for BioEnergy and Bioproducts - page 148

The nuclear male sterility (NMS) system [ 81 ] is a genetically modified genetic
male sterility system that uses herbicide tolerance/susceptibility to purify the
female line in the hybrid seed production plots. With the exception of the use of a
herbicide to purify the female line in hybrid seed production plots, production of the
NMS pollination control system components and hybrid seed would use similar
procedures to those for GMS pollination control systems.
If a cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) pollination control system [ 98 ] is used to
produce the hybrid seed components, the female line is homozygous recessive
(rf/rf) for male fertility restorer gene(s) and present in male sterility-inducing
cytoplasm, the maintainer line is homozygous recessive for male fertility restoring
gene(s) and present in a male fertile cytoplasm, while the restorer line is homozy-
gous dominant for male fertility restorer gene(s) and present in a male sterile or
male fertile cytoplasm. Production of the CMS pollination control system compo-
nents and hybrid seed would use similar procedures to those listed above for GMS
pollination control system.
Market Challenges/Barriers to Commercialization/
Opportunities
Market challenges exist because Brassica oils for biofuels and bioproducts compete
with fossil oils, the traditional source of oils for transportation fuels and chemical
feedstocks. Brassica oils, while acceptable for biodiesel production currently, may
not be suitable in the future as evolving clean diesel engine technology may require
shorter chain length components in biodiesel fuel than currently available in
Brassica oils. Another market challenge is the food versus fuel/bioproduct debate,
which continues with no simple resolution. The development and production of
nonfood Brassicaceae species on marginal farmland has been proposed as a solu-
tion. Finally, a significant volume of Brassica oil is required to meet even a small
portion of the biofuel/bioproducts market needs. For example, one million tons of
Brassica oil will be needed annually to meet Canada's 2 % biodiesel in diesel fuel
mandate. This will require 530,000 ha of canola production in Canada at the current
average yield of 1.89 t/ha. This additional production can be accommodated in
Canada but may lead to shorter rotation times between plantings of canola, which
may increase disease pressure and volunteer canola issues.
Barriers to commercialization include the high costs of Brassica oilseed-related
research and development, especially when it involves advanced biotechnologies.
The high costs of obtaining and maintaining all of the regulatory approvals for
commercial production of new transgenic traits limit the commercialization of such
transgenic plants to a very few organizations. Another current but perhaps declining
barrier to commercialization of transgenic plants is the lack of acceptance of
transgenic plants by certain areas of the world.