Seed quality

Brassica seeds are used both for consumer purposes (mainly vegetable oil) and propagation (vegetables and oil crops). High quality seeds are critical for both uses. However, the genetic variations that underlie seed quality traits and seedling vigour are complex and most are governed by multiple genetic loci that have quantitative effects.

Key research question

By targeting both seed quality, with particular emphasis on seed oil content, seed germination and seedling vigour in B. rapa, our aim is to establish the relationship between these traits and to identify major regulatory loci. The acquired information will be incorporated into strategies to breed for these important agronomic traits in both B. rapa and B. napus and will accelerate cloning of causative genes.

Research populations

Our approach to genetically dissect the regulation of seed quality is to collect seeds in the onset of oil deposition (seed-filling stage) from doubled haploid populations of B. rapa for gene expression analyses. Additionally mature seed from both populations will be collected for analysis of seed quality traits and seedling vigour under optimal conditions and under stress.

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eQTL studies

All microarray data will be analyzed for eQTL, and regulatory networks will be constructed, using bioinformatics tools. The taken approach is innovative, since it not only identifies QTL and candidate genes underlying the QTL for important seed quality and seedling vigour traits, but also will establish the relationship between these traits

Projects

  • Transcript profiling to genetically dissect seed quality and seed vigour traits in Brassica rapa (CBSG)