Genetic models for polyploid crop adaptation provide important information relevant for future breeding prospects. A well-suited model is Brassica napus, a recent allopolyploid closely related to Arabidopsis thaliana. Flowering time is a major adaptation trait determining life cycle synchronization with the environment. Here we unravel natural genetic variation in B. napus flowering time regula...

Flowering, the transition from the vegetative to the generative phase, is a decisive time point in the lifecycle of a plant. Flowering is controlled by a complex network of transcription factors, photoreceptors, enzymes and miRNAs. In recent years, several studies gave rise to the hypothesis that this network is also strongly involved in the regulation of other important lifecycle processes ran...

Experiments were conducted to evaluate the nutritional value of meal derived from low glucosinolate cultivars of mustard (Brassica juncea) in comparison to samples of canola meal (Brassica napus, Brassica rapa). Samples of Brassica seed (four B. juncea, one B. napus, and one B. rapa) were processed using laboratory procedures to produce oil-extracted meals, which were examined for composition (...

Homoeologous regions of Brassica genomes were analyzed at the sequence level. These represent segments of the Brassica A genome as found in Brassica rapa and Brassica napus and the corresponding segments of the Brassica C genome as found in Brassica oleracea and B. napus. Analysis of synonymous base substitution rates within modeled genes revealed a relatively broad range of times (0.12 to 1.37...

Arabidopsis thaliana (the model dicotyledonous plant) is closely related to Brassica crop species. Genome collinearity, or conservation of marker order, between Brassica napus (oilseed rape) and A. thaliana was assessed over a 7.5-Mbp region of the long arm of A. thaliana chromosome 4, equivalent to 30 cM. Estimates of copy number indicated that sequences present in a single copy in the haploid...

Over 1000 genetically linked RFLP loci in Brassica napus were mapped to homologous positions in the Arabidopsis genome on the basis of sequence similarity. Blocks of genetically linked loci in B. napus frequently corresponded to physically linked markers in Arabidopsis. This comparative analysis allowed the identification of a minimum of 21 conserved genomic units within the Arabidopsis genome,...

In Brassica , the thioredoxin h proteins, THL1 and THL2, were previously found to be potential inhibitors of the S receptor kinase (SRK) in the Brassica self-incompatibility response. To investigate the biological roles of THL1 and THL2 in pollen-pistil interactions, the stigma-specific SLR1 promoter was used to drive antisense THL1/2 expression in Brassica napus cv. Westar. This cultivar is no...

Oil seed rape (Brassica napus L.) cultivars, donors of quality (SC) and self-incompatible (SI) lines have been analysed using identification of S-locus. In several Brassica napus cultivars one S-locus SLG gene was detected as dominant and the second S-locus as recessive. Amplification class II SLG gene screened recessive gene in all analysed samples (SC and SI). The DNA fragment of recessive ge...

Introduction: Many plants with anti-oxidant properties proved to be effective on diabetes treatment. Brassica napus (turnip) is an anti-oxidant plant consumed raw or cooked. In this study, we examined and compared hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic properties of raw and cooked Brassica napus in diabetic rats. Objectives: Due to measuring bioactive component of Brassica napus as a rich source of fla...

Brassica napus is an economically important crop across different continents including temperate and subtropical regions in Europe, Canada, South Asia, China and Australia. Its widespread cultivation also brings setbacks as it plays host to fungal, oomycete and chytrid pathogens that can lead to serious yield loss. For sustainable crop production, identification of resistance (R) genes in B. na...