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——这不仅是为了允许通过植物育种进行遗传改良，而且也是为了减少作物对病虫害以及环境条件其他变化的脆弱性。包括油菜在内的许多作物物种的遗传多样性有限，这是研究人员和植物育种家主要关注的问题。油菜是由一种萝卜型植物和一种花椰菜/卷心菜型植物杂交而成的。虽然目前油菜的遗传多样性很窄，但其两个祖先物种的遗传多样性更大。利用这两个祖先品种改良油菜籽一直受到限制。迄今为止，人们在了解和利用萝卜型物种的多样性来改良油菜方面做了一些努力；然而，尽管菜花/卷心菜型物种具有很高的遗传多样性，但迄今为止还没有人为此目的探索利用菜花/卷心菜型物种。本研究计划将探索油菜不同亲缘种的遗传多样性，为该作物的改良提供依据。短期内，拟开展的研究将调查不同菜花、花椰菜、西兰花等类型植物物种的遗传多样性，为加拿大油菜改良农艺和提高生产力提供依据。我们还将研究菜花型植物物种的早花基因，我们已经将其转移到油菜籽中，以提高加拿大油菜籽开花和成熟的早性。本项目的研究成果可用于加拿大草原油菜高产品种的开发；以及培育早熟油菜品种，使其更适合我国生长季节短的地区。

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.