Brassica and Its Close Allies: Cytogenetics and Evolution

TL;DR: Armed with new genetic resources from trigenomic bridges, Brassica breeders will be able to improve yield and broaden adaptation of Brassica crops to meet human demands for food and biofuel, particularly in the face of abiotic constraints caused by climate change.

TL;DR: This review introduces the Brassica crop species and their wild relatives, barriers to interspecific and intergeneric hybridization and methods to overcome them, previous successful and unsuccessful attempts at the use of interspecific hybridization for crop improvement in Brassica, and provides information about resources available to breeders wishing to take advantage of this method.

TL;DR: The marker data and geographic distribution of Groups 1 and 2 were consistent with two independent migrations of B. juncea from its center of origin in the Middle East and neighboring regions along trade routes to western China and northern India, followed by regional adaptation.

TL;DR: It is speculated that the putative candidate male sterility gene orf108 may not be responsible for the CMS observed in Brassica oxyrrhina and Diplotaxis catholica, and the potential coincidence of CMS in alloplasmic lines is proposed.

TL;DR: A gene called REPLUMLESS is identified that is required for replum development and encodes a homeodomain protein that prevents replum cells from adopting a valve margin cell fate by negatively regulating expression of the SHATTERPROOF genes.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that extensive duplication and rearrangement have been involved in the formation of the Brassica genomes from a smaller ancestral genome.

TL;DR: Molecular evidence for an ascending order of chromosome numbers in the evolution of Brassica and allied genera was obtained on the basis of RFLP data and phylogenetic analysis, suggesting that two basic evolutionary pathways exist for the diploid species examined.

TL;DR: An experimental approach to quantify “ fixed heterosis” in resynthesised Brassica napus and the detection of loci contributing to “fixed heterosis" via comparative QTL mapping in B. rapa and B. oleracea is proposed.