Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) oil with higholeic acid content is of great interest for both food andnon-food uses. The ‘Tamla’ variety, characterized by oleicacid content of approximately 69%, was treated with 1%ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS) to induce mutations in thefatty acid biosynthesis pathway. M1 plants were selfed andsubsequent generations (M2, M3, and M4 mutants) wereanalyzed to identify mutants having increased levels ofoleic acid. M2 mutants showed oleic acid content rangingfrom 13.5% to 76.9% with some mutants (TR-458 andTR-544) having up to 74.7% and 76.9% oleic acid, whichwas an increase of nearly 5% and 7%, respectively,compared to untreated cv ‘Tamla’. We selected two M3mutants with >75% oleic acid content. One mutant(TR-458-2) had increased oleic acid (75.9%) and decreasedlinoleic acid (12.5%) and linolenic acid (4.4%) contents. The other (TR-544-1) showed increased oleic acid content(75.7%) and decreased linoleic acid (13.5%) and linolenicacid (3.3%) contents. The accumulation or reduction ofoleic acid content in the selected M4 mutants was alsoaccompanied by a simultaneous decrease or increase inlinoleic and linolenic acid contents. The high-oleic linescould be utilized further in breeding programs forimprovement of rapeseed oil quality.
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