Marwede, VGül, MKBecker, HCEcke, W2025-01-272025-01-2720050179-95411439-0523https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0523.2004.01050.xhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12428/21442Tocopherols are natural antioxidants in vegetable oils and are important dietary nutrients. Enhanced tocopherol content has become an important objective in oilseed rape breeding. A segregating DH population was tested for 2 years at two locations in replicated field trials. Genotypic differences occurred for alpha-, gamma- and total tocopherol content as well as alpha/gamma-tocopherol ratio, but highly significant genotype x environment interactions resulted in low heritabilities. Using a mixed-model composite interval mapping approach between one and five QTL with additive and/or additive x environment interaction effects could be mapped for alpha-, gamma- and total tocopherol content and alpha/gamma-tocopherol ratio. In addition, one to six locus pairs with epistatic interaction effects were identified, indicating a strong contribution of epistasis to trait variation. In total, the additive and epistatic effects explained between 28% (alpha-tocopherol content) and 73% (total tocopherol content) of the genotypic variance in the population, with individual QTL and locus pairs contributing between 7.5 and 29.2% of variance. Considering the low heritabilities of the tocopherol traits, the results of this study indicate that marker-assisted selection may be an efficient strategy in a breeding program for enhanced tocopherol content in rapeseed.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccessBrassica napusmarker-assisted selectionQTLtocopherolArticle1241202610.1111/j.1439-0523.2004.01050.xQ2WOS:0002269671000052-s2.0-14744277294Q2