Genetic dissection of yield components and nutritional traits in a novel Indian mustard <scp>RIL</scp> population

Abstract Indian mustard ( Brassica juncea ) is a crucial oilseed crop in India, enhancing the nation's oilseed production. A primary agricultural goal is to develop high‐yielding, disease‐resistant varieties with superior nutritional quality. To address this, a novel recombinant inbred lines (RIL) population was developed by crossing an exotic East European genotype, ‘Heera’ with the high‐yielding Indian mustard variety ‘DRMRIJ‐31’ using a single seed descent method. Our study presents the comprehensive characterisation of this RIL population for yield components and oil quality traits. Over the 2 years (2021–2022 and 2022–2023), we meticulously phenotyped 320 individuals from this RIL population, focusing on yield component traits. The RIL population showed a high level of variability for traits such as plant height (175–236 cm), days to 50% flowering (48–72 DAS), days to maturity (145–164), number of primary branches (5–9), thousand seed weight (1.6–6.2 g), seed coat colour and yield (957–3039 kg/ha). Concurrently, we conducted biochemical analysis, measuring total antioxidants (11.3–110.2 mg/g), phenol (57.6–274.3 μg/g), flavonoids (29.2–1591.6 μg/g) and glucosinolates (21.2–140.3 μmol/g) and erucic acid content (0.5%34%) to gain insights into the nutritional and anti‐nutritional components of this RIL population. This multi‐faceted characterisation provides a holistic understanding of the RIL population, offering valuable insights for future breeding programmes and crop improvement strategies.