A trait-led approach which exploits natural variation in seed vigour to enhance crop establishment.

为了成功地种植农作物，农民必须从他们播种的种子中确定正确的苗木数量。苗木太多或太少都会对作物的盈利能力产生毁灭性的影响。还有一个环境后果，因为杀虫剂、除草剂和化肥等化学作物处理没有得到有效利用。土壤苗床可能是一个非常恶劣的发芽环境，因此要求高活力的种子在播种后始终提供相同数量的幼苗。然而，在实践中，种子活力是可变的。问题是，人们没有充分了解是什么使种子充满活力，因此，这一特征没有包括在新作物品种的育种计划中。种子生产的环境可能会影响种子活力，种子公司一直在使用一系列基本技术来解决这一问题，但尽管如此，种子活力仍然不稳定。然而，我们已经证明，种子活力的差异也可能有遗传基础，因此有进一步提高种子活力的机会。在这项提议中，我们的目标是更好地了解这些基因差异背后的原因。为了做到这一点，我们将确定负责种子活力最重要方面的一个或多个基因，即它们萌发的速度。在这项工作中，我们将深入了解这些基因如何调节种子内影响萌发的过程，这将有助于公司开发提高种子活力的方法。不同的植物品系可以以不同的速率萌发，这可能是由于同一基因内的微小差异(序列差异)。通过观察我们选择的一系列已知发芽速度不同的品系中基因序列的差异，我们的目标是了解这些序列差异是如何与发芽率的差异联系在一起的。更复杂的是，一些作物含有多个基因的多个副本。很可能不是所有的基因拷贝都会对你感兴趣的性状产生相同的影响(例如发芽率)，因此我们还必须确定哪些基因拷贝对发芽率有显著影响。有了这种类型的信息，植物育种者就有可能在他们生产的新品种中进行育种和选择更快的萌发(增强活力)。我们将对甘蓝作物进行拟议的工作，该作物含有卷心菜、花椰菜和芽菜等常见蔬菜，但也将对油菜(Brassica Napus)进行研究，油菜是一种日益重要的可耕种作物。然而，从长远来看，这项工作与许多其他作物，甚至装饰植物，如垫草相关。

To grow crops successfully, the farmer has to establish the correct number of seedlings from the seeds they sow. Too many or too few seedlings can have a devastating effect on the profitability of the crops they produce. There is also an environmental consequence, because chemical crop treatments like insecticides, herbicides and fertilisers are not used efficiently. The soil seedbed can be a very harsh environment in which to germinate and therefore seeds with high vigour are required to consistently provide the same number of seedlings following sowing. However, in practice seed vigour is variable. The problem is, that is it not fully understood what makes seeds vigorous and consequently this characteristic is not included in breeding programmes for new crop cultivars. The environment in which seeds are produced can affect seed vigour and seed companies have been addressing this using a range of basic technologies, but despite this seed vigour remains variable. However, we have shown that differences in seed vigour can also have a genetic basis and so there is a further opportunity for improving seed vigour. In this proposal we aim to gain a greater understanding of what underlies these genetic differences. To do this, we will identify the gene or genes which are responsible for arguably the most important aspect of seed vigour, how fast they germinate. During this work we will gain insight and understanding into how these genes regulate processes within the seed that affect germination and this will help companies develop methods to improve seed vigour. Different plant lines can germinate at different rates, and this may be due to only small differences (sequence differences) within the same gene. By looking at the differences in the sequence of our selected gene in a range of lines which are known to germinate at different rates we aim to see how these differences in sequence are linked to differences in germination rate. A further complication is that some crops contain more than one copy of many genes. It is likely that not all copies of the genes will have the same impact on your trait of interest (e.g. germination rate), and so we must also determine which of the gene copies are significantly affecting germination rate. With this type of information it is possible for plant breeders to breed and select for faster germination (enhanced vigour) in the new cultivars they produce. We will carryout the proposed work in the crop species Brassica oleracea which contains familiar vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower and sprouts, but will also work with oil Seed Rape (Brassica napus) which is an increasingly important arable crop. However, in the long term the work has relevance to many other crops and even ornamentals such as bedding plants.