Field evaluation of transgenic Brassica napus lines carrying a seed‐specific chimeric 2S albumin gene

The agronomic performance of transgenic Brassica napus lines carrying chimeric 2S albumin seed protein genes was studied under field conditions. A total of 37 transgenic lines were compared to non‐transformed lines. Plant development, morphological characteristics, yield parameters and seed composition were considered. Only a few transgenic lines differed from the control, and then only for particular parameters: four lines had altered leaf morphology, two differed in germination efficiency, one differed in yield, and three differed in some parameters of seed composition. These differences were not correlated with the presence or expression of the transgene and, thus, were more probably linked to cell‐ or tissue‐culture effects, or to residual variation present in cv. ‘Drakkar’. A statistical interaction between variations in a limited number of seed composition parameters and cell haploid culture was observed. While the expression of the chimeric 2S albumin gene was not as high as hoped, this study demonstrates that transgenic lines can be isolated in which the intrinsic morphological and agronomic properties of the original lines are maintained.