Broadening genetic diversity in spring canola brassica napus: exploration of the C genome of B. oleracea

作物中存在足够的遗传多样性是至关重要的--这不仅是为了通过植物育种进行遗传改良，也是为了减少作物对虫害和疾病以及环境条件的其他变化的脆弱性。包括油菜在内的许多作物物种的遗传多样性很窄，这是研究人员和植物育种者的主要担忧。油菜籽是由萝卜类植物和花椰菜/卷心菜类植物杂交而成。尽管目前油菜籽的遗传多样性很小，但它的两个祖先物种存在着更广泛的多样性。这两个祖先种在油菜改良上的应用一直很有限。到目前为止，人们已经做出了一些努力来了解和利用萝卜类物种的多样性来改良油菜；然而，尽管花椰菜/甘蓝类物种具有很高的遗传多样性，但到目前为止还没有努力探索这一目的的利用。建议的研究计划将探索不同亲缘种油菜的遗传多样性，以期对该作物进行改良。在短期内，这项研究将调查不同类型的甘蓝、花椰菜、花椰菜等植物的遗传多样性，为加拿大油菜在改良农艺和提高生产率方面提供参考。我们还将研究花椰菜类植物的早花基因，我们已经将其转移到油菜中，以提高加拿大油菜的开花早熟性。该项目的研究成果可应用于加拿大草原油菜高产品种的开发，也可用于开发更适合我国短生长季地区的早熟油菜品种。

Presence of adequate genetic diversity in a crop is essential - not only to allow for genetic improvement through plant breeding but also for reducing the vulnerability of the crop to insect pests and diseases as well as other changes in environmental conditions. The narrow genetic diversity in many crop species, including canola, is a major concern to researchers and plant breeders. The crop species canola originated in nature from crosses between a turnip type plant species and a cauliflower/cabbage type plant species. Although genetic diversity in current canola is narrow, wider diversity is present in its two progenitor species. The use of these two progenitor species for the improvement of canola has been limited. To date, some effort has been made to understand and utilize the diversity of the turnip type species for the improvement of canola; however, no effort has been made so far to explore the use of the cauliflower/cabbage type species for this purpose, despite the fact that this species has high genetic diversity. The proposed research program will explore the genetic diversity in different related-species of canola for the improvement of this crop. In the short-term, the proposed research will investigate the genetic diversity in different cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, etc. type plant species, for the improvement of Canadian canola in terms of improved agronomy and increased productivity. We will also study the early flowering gene of the cauliflower type plant species, which we have already transferred into canola for the improvement of earliness of flowering and maturity in Canadian canola. The research results from this project can be applied for the development of high yielding canola cultivars for the Canadian prairie; as well as for developing early maturing canola cultivars which will be better suited to the short growing-season areas in this country.