The genetic basis of seed germination and seedling vigor is largely unknown in Brassica species. We performed a study to evaluate the genetic basis of these important traits in a B. rapa doubled haploid population from a cross of a yellow-seeded oil-type yellow sarson and a black-seeded vegetable-type pak choi. We identified 26 QTL regions across all 10 linkage groups for traits related to seed...

Release of transgenic insect-resistant crops creates the potential not only for the insect pest to evolve resistance but for the escape of transgenes that may confer novel or enhanced fitness-related traits through hybridization with their wild relatives. The differential response of diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) populations in eastern and western Canada to Bt-producing (GT) Brassica n...

Arabidopsis belongs to the Brassicaceae family and plays an important role as a model plant for which researchers have developed fine-tuned genome resources. Genome sequencing projects have been initiated for other members of the Brassicaceae family. Among these projects, research on Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa subsp. pekinensis) started early because of strong interest in this species. Here...

Following successful completion of the Brassica rapa sequencing project, the next step is to investigate functions of individual genes/proteins. For Arabidopsis thaliana, large amounts of protein-protein interaction (PPI) data are available from the major PPI databases (DBs). It is known that Brassica crop species are closely related to A. thaliana. This provides an opportunity to infer the B. ...

Intergeneric hybridization was performed between Moricandia arvensis and four inbred lines of Brassica rapa following embryo rescue. Three F(1) hybrid plants were developed from three cross combinations of M. arvensis × B. rapa, and amphidiploids were synthesized by colchicine treatment. Six BC(1) plants were generated from a single cross combination of amphidipolid × B. rapa 'Ko1-303' through ...

For determining interactive plant-bacterial effects between glucosinolates and phyllospheric colonization by a plant growth-promoting strain, Enterobacter radicincitans DSM 16656, in cruciferous vegetables, the extent of bacterial colonization was assessed in 5 cruciferous vegetables (Brassica juncea, Brassica campestris, Brassica oleracea var. capitata, Brassica rapa var. alboglabra, Nasturtiu...

Stir-frying is a cooking method, originating from Asia, in which food is fried in small amount of very hot oil. Nowadays in many other parts of the world stir-frying is a very popular method to prepare vegetables, because it is fast and fried vegetables are tasty. However, the retention of phytochemicals like the health-beneficial glucosinolates in Brassica vegetables is less explored for stir-...

Meiotic crossovers (COs) are essential for proper chromosome segregation and the reshuffling of alleles during meiosis. In WT plants, the number of COs is usually small, which limits the genetic variation that can be captured by plant breeding programs. Part of this limitation is imposed by proteins like FANCM, the inactivation of which results in a 3-fold increase in COs in Arabidopsis thalian...

Whole genome duplication (WGD) and tandem duplication (TD) are both important modes of gene expansion. However, how WGD influences tandemly duplicated genes is not well studied. We used Brassica rapa, which has undergone an additional genome triplication (WGT) and shares a common ancestor with Arabidopsis thaliana, Arabidopsis lyrata, and Thellungiella parvula, to investigate the impact of geno...

The hypothesis that the passive voice is used to put the actor in the background and the acted-upon person in the focus of discourse is tested in the realm of sexual violence. German university students (N = 67) watched a silent video segment depicting a rape whose circumstances, depending on condition, could or could not be easily interpreted in terms of rape myths. Then they wrote down what t...