We developed two mutant populations of oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) using EMS (ethylmethanesulfonate) as a mutagen. The populations were derived from the spring type line YN01-429 and the winter type cultivar Express 617 encompassing 5,361 and 3,488 M2 plants, respectively. A high-throughput screening protocol was established based on a two-dimensional 8× pooling strategy. Genes of the sinapine biosynthesis pathway were chosen for determining the mutation frequencies and for creating novel genetic variation for rapeseed breeding. The extraction meal of oilseed rape is a rich protein source containing about 40% protein. Its use as an animal feed or human food, however, is limited by antinutritive compounds like sinapine. The targeting-induced local lesions in genomes (TILLING) strategy was applied to identify mutations of major genes of the sinapine biosynthesis pathway. We constructed locus-specific primers for several TILLING amplicons of two sinapine synthesis genes, BnaX.SGT and BnaX.REF1, covering 80–90% of the coding sequences. Screening of both populations revealed 229 and 341 mutations within the BnaX.SGT sequences (135 missense and 13 nonsense mutations) and the BnaX.REF1 sequences (162 missense, 3 nonsense, 8 splice site mutations), respectively. These mutants provide a new resource for breeding low-sinapine oilseed rape. The frequencies of missense and nonsense mutations corresponded to the frequencies of the target codons. Mutation frequencies ranged from 1/12 to 1/22 kb for the Express 617 population and from 1/27 to 1/60 kb for the YN01-429 population. Our TILLING resource is publicly available. Due to the high mutation frequencies in combination with an 8× pooling strategy, mutants can be routinely identified in a cost-efficient manner. However, primers have to be carefully designed to amplify single sequences from the polyploid rapeseed genome.

In oilseed rape (Brassica napus), the glucosyltransferase UGT84A9 catalyzes the formation of 1-O-sinapoyl-β-glucose, which feeds as acyl donor into a broad range of accumulating sinapate esters, including the major antinutritive seed component sinapoylcholine (sinapine). Since down-regulation of UGT84A9 was highly efficient in decreasing the sinapate ester content, the genes encoding this enzyme were considered as potential targets for molecular breeding of low sinapine oilseed rape. B. napus harbors two distinguishable sequence types of the UGT84A9 gene designated as UGT84A9-1 and UGT84A9-2. UGT84A9-1 is the predominantly expressed variant, which is significantly up-regulated during the seed filling phase, when sinapate ester biosynthesis exhibits strongest activity. In the allotetraploid genome of B. napus, UGT84A9-1 is represented by two loci, one derived from the Brassica C-genome (UGT84A9a) and one from the Brassica A-genome (UGT84A9b). Likewise, for UGT84A9-2 two loci were identified in B. napus originating from both diploid ancestor genomes (UGT84A9c, Brassica C-genome; UGT84A9d, Brassica A-genome). The distinct UGT84A9 loci were genetically mapped to linkage groups N15 (UGT84A9a), N05 (UGT84A9b), N11 (UGT84A9c) and N01 (UGT84A9d). All four UGT84A9 genomic loci from B. napus display a remarkably low micro-collinearity with the homologous genomic region of Arabidopsis thaliana chromosome III, but exhibit a high density of transposon-derived sequence elements. Expression patterns indicate that the orthologous genes UGT84A9a and UGT84A9b should be considered for mutagenesis inactivation to introduce the low sinapine trait into oilseed rape.

Resveratrol is a phytoalexin produced in various plants like wine, peanut or pine in response to fungal infection or UV irradiation, but it is absent in members of the Brassicaceae. Moreover, resveratrol and its glucoside (piceid) are considered to have beneficial effects on human health, known to reduce heart disease, arteriosclerosis and cancer mortality. Therefore, the introduction of the gene encoding stilbene synthase for resveratrol production in rapeseed is a tempting approach to improve the quality of rapeseed products. The stilbene synthase gene isolated from grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) was cloned under control of the seed-specific napin promotor and introduced into rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) by Agrobacterium-mediated co-transformation together with a ds-RNA-interference construct deduced from the sequence of the key enzyme for sinapate ester biosynthesis, UDP-glucose:sinapate glucosyltransferase (BnSGT1), assuming that the suppression of the sinapate ester biosynthesis may increase the resveratrol production in seeds through the increased availability of the precursor 4-coumarate. Resveratrol glucoside (piceid) was produced at levels up to 361 μg/g in the seeds of the primary transformants. This value exceeded by far piceid amounts reported from B. napus expressing VST1 in the wild type sinapine background. There was no significant difference in other important agronomic traits, like oil, protein, fatty acid and glucosinolate content in comparison to the control plants. In the third seed generation, up to 616 μg/g piceid was found in the seeds of a homozygous T3-plant with a single transgene copy integrated. The sinapate ester content in this homozygous T3-plant was reduced from 7.43 to 2.40 mg/g. These results demonstrate how the creation of a novel metabolic sink could divert the synthesis towards the production of piceid rather than sinapate ester, thereby increasing the value of oilseed products.

Genetic linkage maps, constructed from multi-locus recombination data, are the basis for many applications of molecular markers. For the successful employment of a linkage map, it is essential that the linear order of loci on a chromosome is correct. The objectives of this theoretical study were to (1) investigate the occurrence of incorrect locus orders caused by duplicate marker loci, (2) develop a statistical test for the detection of duplicate markers, and (3) discuss the implications for practical applications of linkage maps. We derived conditions, under which incorrect locus orders do or do not occur with duplicate marker loci for the general case of n markers on a chromosome in a BC1 mapping population. We further illustrated these conditions numerically for the special case of four markers. On the basis of the extent of segregation distortion, an exact test for the presence of duplicate marker loci was suggested and its power was investigated numerically. Incorrect locus orders caused by duplicate marker loci can (1) negatively affect the assignment of target genes to chromosome regions in a map-based cloning experiment, (2) hinder indirect selection for a favorable allele at a quantitative trait locus, and (3) decrease the efficiency of reducing the length of the chromosome segment attached to a target gene in marker-assisted backcrossing.

The resistance gene analogue (RGA) pic19 in maize, a candidate for sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV) resistance gene (R gene) Scmv1, was used to screen a maize BAC library to identify homologous sequences in the maize genome and to investigate their genomic organisation. Fifteen positive BAC clones were identified and could be classified into five physically independent contigs consisting of overlapping clones. Genetic mapping clustered three contigs into the same genomic region as Scmv1 on chromosome 6S. The two remaining contigs mapped to the same region as a QTL for SCMV resistance on chromosome 1. Thus, RGAs mapping to a target region can be successfully used to identify further-linked candidate sequences. The pic19 homologous sequences of these clones revealed a sequence similarity of 94–98% on the nucleotide level. The high sequence similarity reveals potential problems for the use of RGAs as molecular markers. Their application in marker-assisted selection (MAS) and the construction of high-density genetic maps is complicated by the existence of closely linked homologues resulting in 'ghost' marker loci analogous to 'ghost' QTLs. Therefore, implementation of genomic library screening, including genetic mapping of potential homologues, seems necessary for the safe application of RGA markers in MAS and gene isolation.

Quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and bulked segregant analyses (BSA) identified the major genes Scmv1 on chromosome 6 and Scmv2 on chromosome 3, conferring resistance against sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV) in maize. Both chromosome regions were further enriched for SSR and AFLP markers by targeted bulked segregant analysis (tBSA) in order to identify and map only markers closely linked to either Scmv1 or Scmv2. For identification of markers closely linked to the target genes, symptomless individuals of advanced backcross generations BC5 to BC9 were employed. All AFLP markers, identified by tBSA using 400 EcoRI/MseI primer combinations, mapped within both targeted marker intervals. Fourteen SSR and six AFLP markers mapped to the Scmv1 region. Eleven SSR and 18 AFLP markers were located in the Scmv2 region. Whereas the linear order of SSR markers and the window size for the Scmv2 region fitted well with publicly available genetic maps, map distances and window size differed substantially for the Scmv1 region on chromosome 6. A possible explanation for the observed discrepancies is the presence of two closely linked resistance genes in the Scmv1 region.

Three previously published resistance gene analogues (RGAs), pic13, pic21 and pic19, were mapped in relation to sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV) resistance genes (Scmv1, Scmv2) in maize. We cloned these RGAs from six inbreds including three SCMV-resistant lines (D21, D32, FAP1360A) and three SCMV-susceptible lines (D145, D408, F7). Pairwise sequence alignments among the six inbreds revealed a frequency of one single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) per 33 bp for the three RGAs, indicating a high degree of polymorphism and a high probability of success in converting RGAs into codominant cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) markers compared to other sequences. SNPs were used to develop CAPS markers for mapping of the three RGAs in relation to Scmv1 (chromosome 6) and Scmv2 (chromosome 3), and for pedigree analyses of resistant inbred lines. By genetic mapping pic21 was shown to be different from Scmv2, whereas pic19 and pic13 are still candidates for Scmv1 and Scmv2, respectively, due to genetic mapping and consistent restriction patterns of ancestral lines.

In a previous study, bulked segregant analysis with amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs) identified several markers closely linked to the sugarcane mosaic virus resistance genes Scmv1 on chromosome 6 and Scmv2 on chromosome 3. Six AFLP markers (E33M61-2, E33M52, E38M51, E82M57, E84M59 and E93M53) were located on chromosome 3 and two markers (E33M61-1 and E35M62-1) on chromosome 6. Our objective in the present study was to sequence the respective AFLP bands in order to convert these dominant markers into more simple and reliable polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based sequence-tagged site markers. Six AFLP markers resulted either in complete identical sequences between the six inbreds investigated in this study or revealed single nucleotide polymorphisms within the inbred lines and were, therefore, not converted. One dominant AFLP marker (E35M62-1) was converted into an insertion/deletion (indel) marker and a second AFLP marker (E33M61-2) into a cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence marker. Mapping of both converted PCR-based markers confirmed their localization to the same chromosome region (E33M61-2 on chromosome 3; E35M62-1 on chromosome 6) as the original AFLP markers. Thus, these markers will be useful for marker-assisted selection and facilitate map-based cloning of SCMV resistance genes.

Enol ethers are reacted with mercaptanes to give the corresponding O/S- or S/S-acetals in medium to high yield. Either product can be formed selectively depending on the acid catalyst and the reaction time applied.