Abstract
We developed new F1 hybrids of Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis) that allow cultivation earlier in spring without heating by introducing extremely late-bolting alleles at two homologs of the flowering repressor Flowering Locus C (BrFLC2 and BrFLC3) from non-heading ‘Leafy Green Parental Line No. 2’. These new F1 hybrids were produced by the following four steps. First, the extremely late bolting selected lines were developed. These selected lines headed in spring after overwintering cultivation, whereas the conventional F1 cultivars flowered. Secondly, an investigation of the three plantings showed that our F1 hybrids formed heads when seeds were sown from mid-February to early March, whereas the conventional F1 cultivar did not form heads because of premature bolting. Thirdly, we identified some F1 hybrids with extremely late bolting during early spring cultivation in an investigation of many F1 hybrids. Finally, based on an investigation across four cold regions for 2 years, we compared the commercialization rate, defined as the proportion of plants greater than 2000 g in weight and with a flowering stalk less than 10 cm long. Then we identified a F1 of MS02 × 12-04 which had a high commercialization rate on average (92%), whereas the rates of three conventional F1 cultivars were only 0–2%. In the near future, these F1 hybrids will be valuable late-bolting cultivars despite climate change, permitting stable cultivation and harvest over wide regions.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Angel A, Song J, Dean C, Howard M (2011) A Polycomb-based switch underlying quantitative epigenetic memory. Nature 476:105–108
Berry S, Dean C (2015) Environmental perception and epigenetic memory: mechanistic insight through FLC. Plant J 83:133–148
Csorba T, Questa JI, Sun Q, Dean C (2014) Antisense COOLAIR mediates the coordinated switching of chromatin states at FLC during vernalization. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 111:16160–16165
De Lucia F, Crevillen P, Jones AME et al (2008) A PHD-polycomb repressive complex 2 triggers the epigenetic silencing of FLC during vernalization. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105:16831–16836. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0808687105
De Mendiburu F. (2013) Agricolae: statistical procedures for agricultural research v1.4. Available at: http://tarwi.lamolina.edu.pe/~fmendiburu
Kawanabe T, Osabe K, Itabashi E, Okazaki K (2016) Development of primer sets that can verify the enrichment of histone modifications, and their application to examining vernalization-mediated chromatin changes in Brassica rapa L. Genes Genet Syst 91:1–10
Kim JS, Chung TY, King GJ et al (2006) A sequence-tagged linkage map of Brassica rapa. Genetics 174:29–39. https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.106.060152
Kim SY, Park BS, Kwon SJ et al (2007) Delayed flowering time in Arabidopsis and Brassica rapa by the overexpression of FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) homologs isolated from Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis). Plant Cell Rep 26:327–336. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-006-0243-1
Kitamoto N, Yui S, Nishikawa K et al (2014) A naturally occurring long insertion in the first intron in the Brassica rapa FLC2 gene causes delayed bolting. Euphytica 196:213–223. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-013-1025-9
Lee I, Amasino RM (1995) Effect of vernalization, photoperiod, and light quality on the flowering phenotype of Arabidopsis plants containing the FRIGIDA gene. Plant Physiol 108:157–162
Li P, Tao Z, Dean C (2015) Phenotypic evolution through variation in splicing of the noncoding RNA COOLAIR. Genes Dev 29:696–701
Li X, Zhang S, Bai J, He Y (2016) Tuning growth cycles of Brassica crops via natural antisense transcripts of BrFLC. Plant Biotechnol J 14:905–914
Lou P, Zhao J, Kim JS et al (2007) Quantitative trait loci for flowering time and morphological traits in multiple populations of Brassica rapa. J Exp Bot 58:4005–4016. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erm255
Michaels SD, Amasino RM (1999) FLOWERING LOCUS C encodes a novel MADS domain protein that acts as a repressor of flowering. Plant Cell 11:949–956
Murray MG, Thompson WF (1980) Rapid isolation of high molecular weight plant DNA. Nucleic Acids Res 8:4321–4325
NARO (2009) List of cropping types of various vegetables. NARO Institute of Vegetable and Tea Science, Tsu, p. 316. (in Japanese) https://www.naro.affrc.go.jp/publicity_report/publication/files/yacya_shiryou_5.pdf
Schranz ME, Quijada P, Sung SB et al (2002) Characterization and effects of the replicated flowering time gene FLC in Brassica rapa. Genetics 162:1457–1468
Sheldon CC, Conn AB, Dennis ES, Peacock WJ (2002) Different regulatory regions are required for the vernalization-induced repression of FLOWERING LOCUS C and for the epigenetic maintenance of repression. Plant Cell 14:2527–2537. https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.004564.motion
Swiezewski S, Liu F, Magusin A, Dean C (2009) Cold-induced silencing by long antisense transcripts of an arabidopsis polycomb target. Nature 462:799–802
R Core Team (2013) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R foundation for statistical computing, Vienna. Accessed at http://www.R-project.org
Wu J, Wei K, Cheng F, Li S (2012) A naturally occurring InDel variation in BraA.FLC.b (BrFLC2) associated with flowering time variation in Brassica rapa. BMC Plant Biol 12:151–159
Xiao D, Zhao JJ, Hou XL et al (2013) The Brassica rapa FLC homologue FLC2 is a key regulator of flowering time, identified through transcriptional co-expression networks. J Exp Bot 64:4503–4516
Yui S (1987) Year-round cultivation of Cruciferous crops in Japan. JARQ 20:185–195
Yui S, Hida K (2002) Effects of plant stages on bolting of the breeding line “Leafy Green Parental Line No.2” (Brassica rapa L. pekinensis group). J Jpn Soc Hortic Sci 71:192–196
Yui S, Yoshikawa H (1991) Bolting resistant breeding of Chinese cabbage. 1. Flower induction of late bolting variety without chilling treatment. Euphytica 52:171–176
Yui S, Yoshikawa H (1992) Breeding of bolting resistance in Chinese cabbage—critical day length for flower induction of late bolting material with no chilling requirement. J Jpn Soc Hort Sci 61:565–568
Zhao J, Kulkarni V, Liu N et al (2010) BrFLC2 (FLOWERING LOCUS C) as a candidate gene for a vernalization response QTL in Brassica rapa. J Exp Bot 61:1817–1825. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erq048
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by “Development of extremely late bolting cultivars in Brassicaceae using molecular analysis of a breeding material which requires long-days for bolting,” Adaptable and Seamless Technology Transfer Program through Target-driven Research and Development, Japan Science and Technology Agency. We are grateful to technicians in Kimitsu, Misato and the Hokkaido Research Station of the Sakata Seed Company for support of our investigation of new F1 hybrids. We also thank the members of our laboratories at the Tohoku Research Center and Iwate Agriculture Research Center for technical support for cultivation of F1 hybrids.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kitamoto, N., Nishikawa, K., Tanimura, Y. et al. Development of late-bolting F1 hybrids of Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L.) allowing early spring cultivation without heating. Euphytica 213, 292 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-017-2079-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-017-2079-x