Breeding Oilseed Crops for Improved Oil Quality

Abstract

Vegetable oils are one of the most valuable commodities in world trade. They are subject to specific quality requirements, both for food and non-food uses, there being a continuous demand for new oil types. Thus, plant breeders have made great efforts over the past four decades to develop those quality features demanded by the industry, mainly related to the fatty acid composition of the seed oil. Initially, breeders had to focus on the natural variation occurring within each oilseed crop and closely related species. From the 1970s onwards, the induction of mutations by treatment of seeds with mutagenizing agents was revealed as an effective system for modifying the fatty acid profile. In fact, mutagenesis has proved to be one of the most successful approaches for creating novel oil types. Nowadays, breeding for improved seed oil quality is in a transitional stage, both from a conceptual and a methodological point of view. First, the concept of oil quality is changing. It is not only defined by its fatty acid composition but also by other parameters, the most important being the triacylglycerol profile and the tocopherol content and composition. Second, molecular techniques for gene identification and manipulation are opening up new possibilities, much more powerful and less random than the traditional ones, for the modification of quality traits. In this review, we aim to offer an overview of seed oil quality as well as its genetic improvement by traditional and biotechnological means.

Key Words:

• Antioxidants
• biotechnology
• fatty acids
• genetic resources
• mutagenesis
• oilseed breeding
• quality
• seed oils
• tocopherols
• triacylglycerols