Seed Structure Characteristics to Form Ultrahigh Oil Content in Rapeseed

BACKGROUND: Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) is an important oil crop in the world, and increasing its oil content is a major breeding goal. The studies on seed structure and characteristics of different oil content rapeseed could help us to understand the biological mechanism of lipid accumulation, and be helpful for rapeseed breeding. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we report on the seed ultrastructure of an ultrahigh oil content rapeseed line YN171, whose oil content is 64.8%, and compared with other high and low oil content rapeseed lines. The results indicated that the cytoplasms of cotyledon, radicle, and aleuronic cells were completely filled with oil and protein bodies, and YN171 had a high oil body organelle to cell area ratio for all cell types. In the cotyledon cells, oil body organelles comprised 81% of the total cell area in YN171, but only 53 to 58% in three high oil content lines and 33 to 38% in three low oil content lines. The high oil body organelle to cotyledon cell area ratio and the cotyledon ratio in seed were the main reasons for the ultrahigh oil content of YN171. The correlation analysis indicated that oil content is significantly negatively correlated with protein content, but is not correlated with fatty acid composition. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results indicate that the oil content of YN171 could be enhanced by increasing the oil body organelle to cell ratio for some cell types. The oil body organelle to seed ratio significantly highly positively correlates with oil content, and could be used to predict seed oil content. Based on the structural analysis of different oil content rapeseed lines, we estimate the maximum of rapeseed oil content could reach 75%. Our results will help us to screen and identify high oil content lines in rapeseed breeding.