Field testing of transgenic rapeseed cv. Hero transformed with a yeast sn-2 acyltransferase results in increased oil content, erucic acid content and seed yield

A major goal of our research is to produce, by genetic manipulation, Brassica napus L. cultivars with higher levels of 22:1 in their seed oil than in present Canadian HEA cultivars developed through traditional breeding. Previously, we reported that transgenic expression of a mutated yeast sn-2 acyltransferase (SLCI-1) in industrial rapeseed cv. Hero resulted in increased seed oil content, increased proportions of erucic acid and increased average seed weight (Zou et al. 1997). Those results were reported only for plants grown in a controlled greenhouse setting. Here we report a summary of the results from two successive years of field trials with T₄ and T₅ generations of B. napus cv. Hero transformed with the SLCI-1 gene. These trials, conducted at Rosthern, Saskatchewan, in two very different growing seasons, show that the SLCI-1 transgenics clearly and consistently out-performed controls, with much increased oil and 22:1 contents, as well as yield, under varying field conditions.