Development of fertility restorers of winter oilseed rape with low glucosinolate content for the CMS Ogu-INRA system

We have bred low glucosinolate (GSL) winter oilseed rape lines carrying the fertility restorer for the CMS Ogu-INRA system. The original restorer line BO20 contained 31μmol/g GSL in seeds, but by crossing this line with various low GSL CMS lines, followed by repeated selection of fertile segregants, we were able to obtain fertile lines with a mean GSL content in seeds of 11.8 μmol/g. This result confirmed that the gene(s) controlling the GSL content are not closely linked to the fertility restorer gene. The results confirm, that the SCAR marker SG34 is closely associated with the fertility restoring allele, and facilitates so the selection of fertile segregants; however, the marker is unable to distinguish between the homozygous and the heterozygous Rfrf genotypes.