Resistance to diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (L.), has been a major criterion for selection in the crucifer breeding program at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. Two types of resistance have been identified and studied. Larval survival on normal wax genotypes (with the typical whitish bloom of cultivated Brassica) is about 50% of survival on susceptibles. Polar extracts...

S locus glycoprotein (SLG) and S locus receptor kinase (SRK) cDNAs were isolated from an S allele present in a number of self-compatible Brassica napus lines. This A10 allele did not segregate with self-incompatibility in crosses involving other self-incompatible B. napus lines. The SLG-A10 cDNA was found to contain an intact open reading frame and was predicted to encode an SLG protein with se...

We demonstrate by in situ hybridization the cell-type-specific expression of transcripts encoded by the self-incompatibility (S) locus of Brassica oleracea. These transcripts are not detected early in stigma development, their expression is switched on in the papillar cells of the stigma surface, and their levels increase in these cells in correlation with the acquisition by the stigma of the s...

Phenolic compounds are proving to be increasingly important for human health and in crop development, defense and adaptation. In spite of the economical importance of Brassica crops in agriculture, the mechanisms involved in the biosynthesis of phenolic compounds presents in these species remain unknown. The genetic and metabolic basis of phenolics accumulation was dissected through analysis of...

The determinants of recognition specificity of self-incompatibility in Brassica are SRK in the stigma and SP11/SCR in the pollen, both of which are encoded in the S locus. The nucleotide sequence analyses of many SRK and SP11/SCR alleles have identified several interspecific pairs of S haplotypes having highly similar sequences between B. oleracea and B. rapa. These interspecific pairs of S hap...

The species Brassica oleracea includes several agricultural varieties characterized by the proliferation of different types of meristems. Using a combination of subtractive hybridization and PCR (polymerase chain reaction) techniques we have identified several genes which are expressed in the reproductive meristems of the cauliflower curd (B. oleracea var. botrytis) but not in the vegetative me...

Chromosome doubling of microspore-derived plants is an important factor in the practical application of microspore culture technology because breeding programs require a large number of genetically stable, homozygous doubled haploid plants with a high level of fertility. In the present paper, 29 populations of microspore-derived plantlets from cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata) and brocc...