A visible seedling-stage screening system for the Brassica napus hybrid breeding by a novel hypocotyl length-regulated gene BnHL

Rapeseed (Brassica napus) is a globally significant oilseed crop with strong heterosis performance. Recessive genic male sterility (RGMS) is one of the key approaches for utilizing heterosis in B. napus. However, this method faces the inherent challenge of being time-consuming and labour-intensive for removing fertile plants during seed production. Here, we report a hypocotyl length-regulated gene, BnHL, which is closely linked to a known fertility gene, BnMs2, serving as a seedling morphology marker. This marker could be used to identify fertile plants in the breeding of RGMS lines based on hypocotyl traits. By targeting the BnHL gene, both homozygous and heterozygous edited mutants exhibited significantly longer hypocotyls than the wild type (WT). Furthermore, germination experiments revealed that 7 days after seed germination, the difference in hypocotyl length between the mutant and the WT seedlings reached its maximum, effectively distinguishing fertile plants under both white (W) and red/far-red (R/FR) light. Mutations in BnHL did not result in significant changes in main agronomic traits. Thus, this study provides a comprehensive strategy for screening and identifying a new morphological marker gene for early screening in RGMS hybrid breeding with completely non-transgene during the whole production.