Intense selection for specific seed qualities in winter oilseed rape breeding has had an inadvertent negative influence on seed germination performance.In a panel of 215 diverse winter oilseed rape varieties spanning over BEARD BALM 50 years of breeding progress in winter-type rapeseed, we found that low seed erucic acid content and reduced seed glucosinolate content were significantly related with prolonged germination time.Genome-wide association mapping revealed that this relationship is caused by linkage drag between important loci for seed quality and germination traits.One QTL for mean germination time on chromosome A09 co-localized with significant but minor QTL for both seed erucic acid and seed glucosinolate content.
This suggested either potential pleiotropy or close linkage of minor factors influencing all three traits.Therefore, a reduction in germination performance may be due to inadvertent co-selection of genetic variants associated with 00 seed quality that have a negative influence on germination.Our results suggest that marker-assisted selection of positive alleles for mean germination time within the modern quality pool can help breeders to maintain maximal germination capacity in new 00-quality Hoodies/Fleece oilseed rape cultivars.