Independent Inheritance of Flower Colour and Male-Fertility Restorer Characters in Brassica napus L.

Available material of oilseed (Brassica napus L., AACC) comprises two yellow-flowered breeding lines and a white/pale-flowered line of resynthesized rape. The flower colour white/pale is dominant over yellow, and is controlled by a gene located in the C-genome. The yellow-flowered genotypes acted as restorer lines and the white/pale-flowered genotype as a maintainer line in a cytoplasmic male sterility system. The segregation pattern of flower colour and male fertility restorer characters were studied in F₂ generations of crosses between these lines, also in a three-way cross additionally including a yellow flowered B. campestris (AA) line. Evidense was obtained in support of the conclusion that the flower colour and male fertility restorer characters are monogenically controlled and independently inherited. Whether the male fertility restorer gene is located in the A or C genome remains to be determined.