Oilseed rape (B.napus) is one of the most important oil crops in the world.In south of China, it is sowed in October and flowers in next March. Now, a mutant B.napus (AACC, 2n=38) show buds at 18 days after sowed (only 2-3 true leaves). Of course, seeds can be harvested in 2 months. I know the genome of B.napus is complicated. So, is it suitable to be used as a model crop instead of Arabidopsis?
Zhixiong,
Rapid-cycling brassicas (Rcbr, fast Wisconsin brassicas, CrGC1-6), including B. napus, are in use over 30 years as model plants in plant genetics, pathology, physiology:
Williams PH, Hill CB. Rapid-cycling populations of brassica. Science. 1986 Jun 13;232(4756):1385-9.
As I know, Rcbr B. rapa had flowers after 2-3 true leaves that means generative organ meristem was formed in seeds already. Rc B. napus from Wisconsin has slower development, but anyway, grow faster than crop plants.
Anyway, rapid-cycling B. napus was not so popular as model plant because of large amphiploid genome (AACC) and limited morphologic /physiologic variation.
Regards
Alex
The Brassicas are the closest crop relatives to the model plant species, Arabidopsis thaliana but Brassicas experienced a whole genome triplication subsequent to their divergence. This event contemporaneously created three copies of its ancestral genome, which had diploidized through the process of homeologous gene loss known as fractionation but still Brassica’s genome is well placed to use comparative genomic techniques to identify syntenic regions, homeologous gene duplications, and putative regulatory sequences.
Tang, H., & Lyons, E. (2012). Unleashing the Genome of Brassica Rapa. Frontiers in Plant Science, 3, 172. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2012.00172
Thank you for your guidance! I've got the paper you mentioned.Also I thought that generative organ meristem was formed in seeds already as you said. But you know, the vernalization genes will turn off while grains filling. And during the stage , epigenetic events lead to flowering genes silencing. So, could we have a hypethesis that some epigenetic event is abnormal? Alex Ignatov
Zhixiong Fan Despite the original description of Rapid Cycling Brassica rapa as highly selected for fast development plant material, PHW admitted long time ago that its basic features were present in original accession collected in Nepal. I had those plants and they had a little slower development comparing to RcBr. So, I guess, it is probably a long-time ago established genetic feature.
Fei Liu I did not plant Arabidopsis. I have sowed the super-early oilseed rape in August 31. It grows outside, not in climate chamber. Today I found it has 29 the pods.
Alex Ignatov Do you have such acessions with double-low quality?(low erucic acid and low glucosinolate?
Zhixiong Fan I had once, but now I must check the seed stocks - they could be non-viable already.
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