Exploring knowledge of gene function to combat pod shatter in oilseed rape

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Successful domestication of seed crops depends on the plant's ability to hold on to its progeny until harvest. The problem of seed dispersal control in cereals was solved thousands of years ago through simple selective breeding, but remains a serious issue for oilseed rape. The average annual loss experienced by farmers due to premature fruit opening, known as pod shatter is >10%. This loss can exceed >70% under particularly windy conditions, when wet weather delays harvest or if a hailstorm hits the field when the crop is ripe. With an expanding human population and dramatic changes in climate patterns, the challenge to global food production has never been bigger, and to meet the demands it is essential that performance of our major crops be improved. However, the potential yield gain from such efforts cannot be fully realised if the farmer looses a significant part of his crop even before going out to harvest. Fruits from oilseed rape dry out at maturity and open to allow their seeds to be dispersed in a process known as pod shatter. Unfortunately, all the fruits in the field do not dry out at the same time making it difficult for oilseed rape farmers to time their harvest and obtain all the seeds. In addition to a significant yield loss, the prematurely released seeds fall to the ground and germinate to become weeds (volunteers) and contaminate the harvest of the following year. This severely inhibits the crop rotation practice used by many farmers and is therefore also damaging to the environment. Arabidopsis is a small, weedy plant that has been used as a laboratory model system to elucidate a wide range of aspects related to plant growth and development. Despite a dramatic size difference, fruits from Arabidopsis are remarkably similar to fruits from oilseed rape. In the past decade some of the key genetic regulators of fruit opening in Arabidopsis have been identified, and we have shown that these factors also function in species that are closely related to oilseed rape. In the proposed research project, we will exploit our knowledge to control pod shatter directly in high-yielding UK-elite oilseed rape varieties. Specifically we will manipulate and adjust the activity of a particular gene by the isolation of mutant plants and assessment of their performance in pod shatter-resistance tests. We will furthermore use mutated lines to expand our knowledge about the mechanism of fruit opening to enable us to fine-tune the pod shatter trait in future varieties. Particular strengths of this project are our genetic resources and our expertise in all the required technologies to successfully fulfill our objectives. In conclusion, we believe that the presented project will provide substantial benefits for both farmers and consumers, as well as for the environment.