The ICAR-Directorate of Rapeseed-Mustard Research is playing a key role in advancing rapeseed-mustard research in frontier areas through multidisciplinary approach. The most significant achievements of this directorate include:

• Six varieties (NRCDR 02, NRCHB 101, NRCDR 601, DRMR IJ 31, DRMR 150-35, DRMR 1165-40) and first CMS based hybrid (NRCHB 506) of Indian mustard and one variety of yellow sarson (NRCYS 05-02) were developed.
• Twenty genetic stocks, ‘NRCDR 515’ (White rust resistant), ‘BPR 541-4’ (Thermo tolerance at terminal stage and salinity tolerance at juvenile stage and high water use efficiency), ‘BPR 543-2’ (Thermo tolerance at juvenile stage and high water use efficiency), ‘NRCKR 304’ (Early maturity, long main shoot and bold seed), WFM 1 (white petal colored mustard), ‘BPR 540-6’ (salinity and Thermos tolerant at juvenile stage), ‘BPR 549-9’ (salinity tolerant at juvenile stage and high water use efficient), ‘BPR-349-9’ (only for Thermos-tolerance at juvenile stage), ‘MCA1’ and ‘MCA2’ (male sterility), WF yellow sarson (yellow sarson with white flower), ‘NRCGS-1’ (early flowering and dwarf plant), ‘DRMR MJA -35’ (white rust resistance), ‘DRMR-5-1’ (00 and white rust resistance), ‘DRMR-2019’ (WR resistant), ‘DRMR-2035’ (WR resistant) and ‘DRMR 541-44’ (drought tolerance). ‘DRMR10-40’ (drought tolerant), DRMR-2059 (high temperature at seedling stage, terminal heat stress tolerant), DRMR-4001 (drought tolerant), DRMR-4005 (Thermos tolerant at juvenile stage coupled with high seed and oil yield) were developed and registered with ICAR-NBPGR.
• Indian mustard hybrid NRCHB 506 and varieties NRCDR 2, NRCHB 101 and DRMR IJ-31, developed at DRMR, were licensed for seed production and marketing to private seed companies.
• Inter-specific hybrid derived from cross of NRCDR 2 (B. juncea) and NRCKR 304 (B. carinata) was confirmed through cyto-morphological studies.
• A core set of Indian mustard with 146 accessions (~8 % of total accessions) and one trait specific set (with 135 accessions) for component traits were developed
• 2548 accessions of rapeseed-mustard being maintained and 2,289 samples were distributed to SAU’s, NGOs and other government organizations for research purpose.
• 400 accessions were evaluated for agro morphological traits and 52 interspecific crosses were generated for re-synthesis of B. juncea. 3 cycle of selection of half sib population for drought, Alternaria blight and high oil were completed and promising half sibs were selected.
• 8 new hybrids utilizing mori/ other CMS systems were evaluated.
• Based on lower seedling mortality (<20%) and higher seedling dry matter (>40 mgs/10 seedling), under controlled conditions DRMRCI-92 has been identified as thermo tolerant at seedling stage.
• Evaluated 604 lines indigenous accessions and 190 exotic accessions of Indian mustard for terminal heat tolerance
• A high frequency regeneration protocol for B. juncea cv. NRCDR 2 has been standardized using cotyledonary petiole explants. 15 independent putative transgenic events have been developed in Indian mustard var. NRCDR-2 with TvD1 gene construct via Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated gene transfer technique. A hp RNAi construct was engineered by using mannose 6-phosphate reductase (M6PR) gene of Orobanche for development of Orobanche tolerance in mustard.
• Molecular characterization of 66 B. juncea and 28 B. rapa varieties have been carried out using SSR markers and total 45 SSR markers validated for inter-specific hybrids between B. rapa x B. spinescences. Three PCR based IP markers (At5g41560, At5g41940 and At2g36360) closely linked to white rust resistance were validated in 26 genotypes of Indian mustard for marker assisted selection. Population structure of a set of (79) diverse Indian mustard genotypes were studied by using 50 polymorphic EST-SSR primers.
• 47,962,057 high quality expressed sequence reads were generated using Illumina MiSeq paired-end sequencing technology. These reads were assembled into 45,280 unigene contigs from which a total of 4,108 perfect SSR loci of >10 bp were identified. Primer pairs for 460 EST-SSRs were commercially synthesized and validated on B. juncea and its wild relatives.
• 15 independent putative transgenic events have been developed in Indian mustard var. NRCDR-2 with TvD1 gene construct via Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated gene transfer technique. Molecular characterization of putative independent transgenic events of B. juncea var. NRCDR-2 had been carried out with PCR using TvD1 gene specific primers.
• Eleven accessions showing heat tolerance at seedling stage were genotyped using 106 SSR primers.
• Total 45 SSR markers validated for inter-specific hybrids between B. rapa x B. spinescences.
• 4100 EST based SSRs were identified. Primer pairs for 460 EST-SSRs were commercially synthesized.
• Palladium complex method developed for estimation of total glucosinolates in seed meal of rapeseed-mustard using ELISA READER.
• Using partial least square regression, calibration for non-destructive estimation of erucic acid and glucosinolate content in seeds of rapeseed-mustard by Fourier transform near infra-red reflectance spectroscopy (FT-NIRS) was developed.
• 147 core set was analyzed for different biochemical characters (total glucosinolate content, oil content, fatty acid profile, total phenolic acid, total fibre content, total antioxidant activity, DPPH activity, allyl isothiocyanate content. C-IV-20, C-II 19, C-III-17, C-IV-29 were identified as low erucic acid (< 2%) lines.
• Identification of potential furans i.e. 5-Hydroxymethyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde (HMF) in Indian mustard through GC-MS
• 44 genotypes analyzed for 14 different biochemical characters.