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必不可少的-不仅可以通过植物育种进行遗传改良，而且可以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狭窄，是研究人员和植物育种家的主要关注点。作物物种卡诺拉在自然界中起源于萝卜型植物物种和花椰菜/卷心菜型植物物种之间的杂交。虽然目前油菜的遗传多样性是狭窄的，更广泛的多样性存在于其两个祖先物种。这两个祖先物种用于改良卡诺拉的使用受到限制。到目前为止，已经做出了一些努力来理解和利用芜菁类型物种的多样性来改进卡诺拉;然而，迄今为止还没有做出任何努力来探索花椰菜/卷心菜类型物种用于此目的，尽管该物种具有高遗传多样性。该研究计划将探索油菜不同相关物种的遗传多样性，以改善这种作物。在短期内，拟议的研究将调查不同卷心菜、花椰菜、西兰花等类型植物物种的遗传多样性，以改善加拿大油菜的农艺和提高生产力。我们还将研究花椰菜类型植物物种的早花基因，我们已经将其转移到加拿大油菜中，以改善加拿大油菜的早花和成熟。该项目的研究结果可用于加拿大大草原高产油菜品种的开发，以及开发早熟油菜品种，这将更适合于该国短生长季节地区。

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.