Long hypocotyls facilitate deeper sowing to improve canola establishment in a warming climate
- 1CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Floreat, Perth, Australia
- 2CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Black Mountain, Canberra, Australia
Abstract
Key message: Deeper sowing of canola into cooler, moist soil could improve crop establishment in stressful conditions. We demonstrate cultivars with long hypocotyls emerge better from deeper sowing than short hypocotyl cultivars.
Abstract: Poor seedling establishment is a major constraint to canola (Brassica napus L.) productivity globally. Optimum seeding depths are commonly 1–2 cm under favourable soil moisture and temperature conditions., However, drying autumn conditions with climate change coupled with increasing farm size often results in canola sown earlier when the soil surface is hot and dry. Deeper sowing (> 3–4 cm) into stored water and more stable temperature allows for timely establishment of early sown crops. Under favourable moisture and temperature conditions, current cultivars establish well at shallow sowing depths but emerge poorly when sown deeper. This study investigated the potential to breed canola cultivars with longer hypocotyls to improve emergence from deep sowing as a strategy to adapt to earlier sowing under climate change – a concept demonstrated successfully with longer coleoptile wheat. A diverse panel of 255 open-pollinated accessions was phenotyped using high-throughput laboratory assays for hypocotyl length and cross-sectional area. Genome-wide association analysis revealed hypocotyl length was under polygenic control, and several significant marker–trait associations were identified. Emergence was validated in multiple field environments with both conventional (2 cm) and deeper (5 cm) sowing. Increased hypocotyl length was strongly associated with improved emergence from deep sowing, supporting its value as a breeding target to improve canola establishment under increasingly variable and challenging growing conditions.
Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-026-05396-2.
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BibTeX
@article{nelson2026long,
title = {{Long hypocotyls facilitate deeper sowing to improve canola establishment in a warming climate}},
author = {Matthew N. Nelson and Mark Cmiel and Alexander Zwart and Trijntje Hughes and Karen Treble and Andrew Toovey and Ian Greaves and Jose M. Barrero and Andrew L. Fletcher and John A. Kirkegaard and Greg J. Rebetzke},
journal = {TAG. Theoretical and Applied Genetics. Theoretische Und Angewandte Genetik},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1007/s00122-026-05396-2},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-026-05396-2},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Long hypocotyls facilitate deeper sowing to improve canola establishment in a warming climate
AU - Matthew N. Nelson
AU - Mark Cmiel
AU - Alexander Zwart
AU - Trijntje Hughes
AU - Karen Treble
AU - Andrew Toovey
AU - Ian Greaves
AU - Jose M. Barrero
AU - Andrew L. Fletcher
AU - John A. Kirkegaard
AU - Greg J. Rebetzke
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
JO - TAG. Theoretical and Applied Genetics. Theoretische Und Angewandte Genetik
DO - 10.1007/s00122-026-05396-2
UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-026-05396-2
AB - Key message: Deeper sowing of canola into cooler, moist soil could improve crop establishment in stressful conditions. We demonstrate cultivars with long hypocotyls emerge better from deeper sowing than short hypocotyl cultivars. Abstract: Poor seedling establishment is a major constraint to canola (Brassica napus L.) productivity globally. Optimum seeding depths are commonly 1–2 cm under favourable soil moisture and temperature conditions., However, drying autumn conditions with climate change coupled with increasing farm size often results in canola sown earlier when the soil surface is hot and dry. Deeper sowing (> 3–4 cm) into stored water and more stable temperature allows for timely establishment of early sown crops. Under favourable moisture and temperature conditions, current cultivars establish well at shallow sowing depths but emerge poorly when sown deeper. This study investigated the potential to breed canola cultivars with longer hypocotyls to improve emergence from deep sowing as a strategy to adapt to earlier sowing under climate change – a concept demonstrated successfully with longer coleoptile wheat. A diverse panel of 255 open-pollinated accessions was phenotyped using high-throughput laboratory assays for hypocotyl length and cross-sectional area. Genome-wide association analysis revealed hypocotyl length was under polygenic control, and several significant marker–trait associations were identified. Emergence was validated in multiple field environments with both conventional (2 cm) and deeper (5 cm) sowing. Increased hypocotyl length was strongly associated with improved emergence from deep sowing, supporting its value as a breeding target to improve canola establishment under increasingly variable and challenging growing conditions. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-026-05396-2.
SN - 0040-5752
SN - 1432-2242
ER -