Wild mustard relatives ranked for their crop-breeding potential
Castillo-Lorenzo E, Hendriks KP, Gilmour F, Shepherd-Clowes A, Cornwell-Davison F
Crop Improvement
The wild radish or wild mustard growing along a roadside or field edge might carry drought or pest resistance genes that could one day strengthen the cabbage or broccoli in your garden bed.
Researchers looked at wild plants related to cabbage, mustard, radish, and other crops in the mustard family, using DNA to map how closely they're all related. By measuring genetic distance, they figured out which wild species are close enough relatives to potentially crossbreed with crops, turning up 23 promising candidates, including 30 species that had never been genetically sequenced before. This gives breeders a roadmap for finding wild genes that could make crops tougher or more nutritious.
Key Findings
Sequenced 175 plant accessions across six genera (Brassica, Crambe, Diplotaxis, Eruca, Raphanus, Sinapis) using herbarium, seed, and living collections
Built a phylogeny of 189 accessions spanning 90 taxa, including 30 taxa never before sequenced
Identified 23 candidate crop wild relatives across the six genera based on phylogenetic distance and inferred cross-compatibility
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists built a family tree of mustard-family crops and their wild cousins to figure out which wild plants carry genes that could help breed hardier cabbages, radishes, and mustards. They pinpointed 23 wild species as top candidates for future breeding, including several never before genetically studied.
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Original paper
A phylogenetic approach to prioritizing crop wild relatives in Brassiceae (Brassicaceae) for breeding applications.
Crop wild relatives (CWRs) are key resources for enhancing agricultural resilience, providing genetic traits that can improve pest resistance, abiotic stress tolerance and nutritional composition i...
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Brassicaceae or Cruciferae is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The leaves are simple, lack stipules, and appear alternately on stems or in r...