Project description:Male sterility has been widely used in hybrid seed production in Brassica, but not in B. rapa ssp. chinensis, and genetic models of male sterility for this subspecies are unclear. We discovered a spontaneous mutant in B. rapa ssp. chinensis A series of progeny tests indicated that male sterility in B. rapa ssp. chinensis follows a three-allele model with BrMsa , BrMsb , and BrMsc The male sterility locus has been mapped to chromosome A07 in BC1 and F2 populations through genotyping by sequencing. Fine mapping in a total of 1,590 F2 plants narrowed the male sterility gene BrMs to a 400 kb region, with two SNP markers only 0.3 cM from the gene. Comparative gene mapping shows that the Ms gene in B. rapa ssp. pekinensis is different from the BrMs gene of B. rapa ssp. chinensis, despite that both genes are located on chromosome A07. Interestingly, the DNA sequence orthologous to a male sterile gene in Brassica napus, BnRf, is within 400 kb of the BrMs locus. The BnRf orthologs of B. rapa ssp. chinensis were sequenced, and one KASP marker (BrMs_indel) was developed for genotyping based on a 14 bp indel at intron 4. Cosegregation of male sterility and BrMs_indel genotypes in the F2 population indicated that BnRf from B. napus and BrMs from B. rapa are likely to be orthologs. The BrMs_indel marker developed in this study will be useful in marker-assisted selection for the male sterility trait.
Project description:A significant fraction of the nuclear DNA of all eukaryotes is comprised of simple sequence repeats (SSRs). Although these sequences are widely used for studying genetic variation, linkage mapping and evolution, little attention had been paid to the chromosomal distribution and cytogenetic diversity of these sequences. In this paper, we report the distribution characterization of mono-, di-, and tri-nucleotide SSRs in Brassica rapa ssp. chinensis. Fluorescence in situ hybridization was used to characterize the cytogenetic diversity of SSRs among morphotypes of B. rapa ssp. chinensis. The proportion of different SSR motifs varied among morphotypes of B. rapa ssp. chinensis, with tri-nucleotide SSRs being more prevalent in the genome of B. rapa ssp. chinensis. We determined the chromosomal locations of mono-, di-, and tri-nucleotide repeat loci. The results showed that the chromosomal distribution of SSRs in the different morphotypes is non-random and motif-dependent, and allowed us to characterize the relative variability in terms of SSR numbers and similar chromosomal distributions in centromeric/peri-centromeric heterochromatin. The differences between SSR repeats with respect to abundance and distribution indicate that SSRs are a driving force in the genomic evolution of B. rapa species. Our results provide a comprehensive view of the SSR sequence distribution and evolution for comparison among morphotypes B. rapa ssp. chinensis.
Project description:Brassica vegetables contain a class of secondary metabolites, the glucosinolates (GS), whose specific degradation products determine the characteristic flavor and smell. While some of the respective degradation products of particular GS are recognized as health promoting substances for humans, recent studies also show evidence that namely the 1-methoxy-indol-3-ylmethyl GS might be deleterious by forming characteristic DNA adducts. Therefore, a deeper knowledge of aspects involved in the biosynthesis of indole GS is crucial to design vegetables with an improved secondary metabolite profile.Initially the leafy Brassica vegetable pak choi (Brassica rapa ssp. chinensis) was established as suitable tool to elicit very high concentrations of 1-methoxy-indol-3-ylmethyl GS by application of methyl jasmonate. Differentially expressed candidate genes were discovered in a comparative microarray analysis using the 2 × 104 K format Brassica Array and compared to available gene expression data from the Arabidopsis AtGenExpress effort. Arabidopsis knock out mutants of the respective candidate gene homologs were subjected to a comprehensive examination of their GS profiles and confirmed the exclusive involvement of polypeptide 4 of the cytochrome P450 monooxygenase subfamily CYP81F in 1-methoxy-indol-3-ylmethyl GS biosynthesis. Functional characterization of the two identified isoforms coding for CYP81F4 in the Brassica rapa genome was performed using expression analysis and heterologous complementation of the respective Arabidopsis mutant.Specific differences discovered in a comparative microarray and glucosinolate profiling analysis enables the functional attribution of Brassica rapa ssp. chinensis genes coding for polypeptide 4 of the cytochrome P450 monooxygenase subfamily CYP81F to their metabolic role in indole glucosinolate biosynthesis. These new identified Brassica genes will enable the development of genetic tools for breeding vegetables with improved GS composition in the near future.