Oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.), which has yellow flowers, is both an important oil crop and a traditional tourism resource in China, whereas the Orychophragmus violaceus, which has purple flowers, likely possesses a candidate gene or genes to alter the flower colour of oilseed rape. A previously established B. napus line has a particular pair of O. violaceus chromosomes (M4) and exhibits slig...

Homeotic conversions of anthers were found in cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) plants of Brassica napus derived from somatic hybrids of B. napus and Arabidopsis thaliana. CMS line flowers displayed petals reduced in size and width and stamens replaced by carpelloid structures. In order to investigate when these developmental aberrations appeared, flower development was analysed histologically, ul...

Developing yellow-seeded Brassica napus (rapeseed) with improved qualities is a major breeding goal. The intermediate and final metabolites of the phenylpropanoid and flavonoid pathways affect not only oil quality but also seed coat colour of B. napus. Here, the accumulation of phenolic compounds was analysed in the seed coats of black-seeded (ZY821) and yellow-seeded (GH06) B. napus. Using tol...

The young allotetraploid Brassica napus (2n = 38, AACC) is one of models to study genomic responses to allopolyploidization. The extraction of AA component from natural B. napus and then restitution of progenitor B. rapa should provide a unique opportunity to reveal the genome interplay for gene expressions during the evolution. Herein, B. napus hybrids (2n = 19, AC) between the extracted and e...

Sclerotinia stem rot (SSR) caused by the necrotrophic fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a major disease in rapeseed (Brassica napus) worldwide. Breeding for SSR resistance in B. napus, as in other crops, relies only on germplasms with quantitative resistance genes. A better understanding of the genetic basis for SSR resistance in B. napus thus holds promise for the genetic improvement of disea...

Oilseed rape (Brassica napus) is sexually compatible with its wild and weedy relative B. rapa, and introgression of genes from B. napus has been found to occur over a few generations. We simulated the early stages of transgene escape by producing F1 hybrids and the first backcross generation between two lines of transgenic B. napus and two populations of weedy B. rapa. Transgene expression and ...

Alloplasmic lines of Brassica napus with rearranged Arabidopsis thaliana mitochondrial DNA are male sterile and vegetatively altered compared with B. napus cv. Hanna. The CMS lines contain pure nuclear and plastid genomes from B. napus. Cross-sections of leaves revealed elevated starch accumulation and a higher number of chloroplasts per cell area in CMS plants compared with B. napus. The incre...

Clubroot significantly affects plants of the Brassicaceae family and is one of the main diseases causing serious losses in B. napus yield. Few studies have investigated the clubroot-resistance mechanism in B. napus. Identification of clubroot-resistant genes may be used in clubroot-resistant breeding, as well as to elucidate the molecular mechanism behind B. napus clubroot-resistance. We used t...

Resistance to pod shattering (shatter resistance) is a target trait for global rapeseed (canola, Brassica napus L.), improvement programs to minimise grain loss in the mature standing crop, and during windrowing and mechanical harvest. We describe the genetic basis of natural variation for shatter resistance in B. napus and show that several quantitative trait loci (QTL) control this trait. To ...

The allotetraploid species Brassica napus L. is a global crop of major economic importance, providing canola oil (seed) and vegetables for human consumption and fodder and meal for livestock feed. Characterizing the genetic diversity present in the extant germplasm pool of B. napus is fundamental to better conserve, manage and utilize the genetic resources of this species. We used sequence-base...