Towards breeding of rapeseed (Brassica napus) with alien cytoplasm and powdery mildew resistance from Ethiopian mustard (Brassica carinata)

Powdery mildew (PM), caused by Erysiphe cruciferarum, is an epidemic of oil rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) growing worldwide, but PM resistant germplasm is rare in this species. We screened 102 accessions of B. napus and other cruciferous species and found an Ethiopian mustard (Brassica carinata) cultivar ‘White flower’ immune to PM in both the field and greenhouse. Outcrossing in the female parent ‘White flower’ was promoted by using a chemical gametocide tribenuron-methyl, to obtain hybrid seeds of distant hybridization with an elite B. napus cultivar ‘Zhongshuang11’. Three true F(1) hybrids with B. carinata cytoplasm were obtained without using embryo rescue, which showed complete male sterility and light yellow petals. The hybrid plants and the progenies derived from backcrossing were validated using morphological traits, seed quality, and molecular markers. Five lines in the BC(1)F(3) generation, named ‘W7-1’, ‘W7-4’, ‘W7-6’, ‘W8-1’, and ‘W8-3’, and one BC(2)F(2) line ‘W3PS-1’, whose young leaf was yellow green, were identified to be resistant or moderately resistant to PM. The seed quality and some morphological traits of these lines resembled the parent ‘Zhongshuang11’, indicating that the resistance gene(s) has been preliminarily introduced into B. napus.