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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Pu Chu

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Guest Editor

College of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Interests: rapeseed (Brassica napus L.); plant physiology; plant molecular biology; plant omics

Prof. Dr. Chenlong Li

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Guest Editor

School of Life Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resource, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Interests: bioinformatics; epigenetics; molecular mechanism; chromosome remodeling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Brassicaceae (formerly Cruciferae) family encompasses a wide range of economically important crops which are critical sources of food, feed, fiber, and biofuels for global populations. In recent decades, significant progress has been made in elucidating the genetic basis of the agronomic and economic traits in this family. This Special Issue of Plants primarily focuses on the exploration and application of genes related to important traits in the Brassicaceae plant, such as crop yield, oil content, oil quality, nutritional value, stress tolerance, disease resistance, etc. We welcome original research and incisive reviews that address the challenges and opportunities in this field. Contributions may cover a wide range of topics, including—but not limited to—gene discovery and functional characterization at all levels (e.g., genome, transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, and epigenome studies), genetic transformation and genome editing, and from model species to crop plants in the Brassicaceae family. By shedding light on this topic, we aim to provide insights into how genetic knowledge can be harnessed to enhance the performance of the Brassicaceae crops for higher yield, better quality, and improved tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses.

Dr. Pu Chu
Prof. Dr. Chenlong Li
Guest Editors

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Keywords

brassicaceae
functional genes
agronomic trait
economic traits
QTL mapping
GWAS
omics
transgenics
gene editing

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 3918 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Identification, Evolutionary Dynamics, and Gene Expression Patterns of the ACP Gene Family in Responding to Salt Stress in Brassica Genus

by Fang Qian, Dan Zuo, Tuo Zeng, Lei Gu, Hongcheng Wang, Xuye Du, Bin Zhu and Jing Ou

Plants 2024, 13(7), 950; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13070950 - 25 Mar 2024

Viewed by 729

Abstract

Acyl carrier proteins (ACPs) have been reported to play a crucial role in responding to biotic and abiotic stresses, regulating growth and development. However, the biological function of the ACP gene family in the Brassica genus has been limited until now. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis and identified a total of 120 ACP genes across six species in the Brassica genus. Among these, there were 27, 26, and 30 ACP genes in the allotetraploid B. napus, B. juncea, and B. carinata, respectively, and 14, 13, and 10 ACP genes in the diploid B. rapa, B. oleracea, and B. nigra, respectively. These ACP genes were further classified into six subclades, each containing conserved motifs and domains. Interestingly, the majority of ACP genes exhibited high conservation among the six species, suggesting that the genome evolution and polyploidization processes had relatively minor effects on the ACP gene family. The duplication modes of the six Brassica species were diverse, and the expansion of most ACPs in Brassica occurred primarily through dispersed duplication (DSD) events. Furthermore, most of the ACP genes were under purifying selection during the process of evolution. Subcellular localization experiments demonstrated that ACP genes in Brassica species are localized in chloroplasts and mitochondria. Cis-acting element analysis revealed that most of the ACP genes were associated with various abiotic stresses. Additionally, RNA-seq data revealed differential expression levels of BnaACP genes across various tissues in B. napus, with particularly high expression in seeds and buds. qRT-PCR analysis further indicated that BnaACP genes play a significant role in salt stress tolerance. These findings provide a comprehensive understanding of ACP genes in Brassica plants and will facilitate further functional analysis of these genes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mining and Utilization of Genes Related to Key Traits in Brassicaceae Plants)

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14 pages, 1779 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of Altered Flowering Related Genes in a Multi-Silique Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) Line zws-ms Based on Combination of Genome, Transcriptome and Proteome Data

by Liang Chai, Haojie Li, Xiaoguang Zhao, Cheng Cui, Benchuan Zheng, Ka Zhang, Jun Jiang, Jinfang Zhang and Liangcai Jiang

Plants 2023, 12(13), 2429; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12132429 - 23 Jun 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 915

Abstract

Based on previous researches, we further investigated the multi-silique trait in rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) line zws-ms. In this study, we used a relatively comprehensive list of flowering related genes in rapeseed and compared them between zws-ms and its near-isogenic line (NIL) zws-217. Genes were studied on genome, transcriptome and proteome levels and then we focused on genes with non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) or frame-shift insertion-deletion (InDel), finding some genes on the list which changes their sequences. Then, combined with their annotation and the information of their orthologs, certain genes such as BnaA09g05900D, ortholog of AGAMOUS-LIKE 42 (AGL42), which encodes an MADS-box protein, were assumed as probably responsible for the multi-silique trait. Also, we analyzed the Differentially Accumulated Proteins (DAPs) between zws-ms and zws-217, revealing some genes involved in homologous recombination and mismatch repair pathways. Since the development of flowers/siliques is crucial to crops and it influences the yield of rapeseed, this study paved a way to deeply understand the mechanism of the multi-pistil flower formation, which may facilitate researches on rapeseed production in future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mining and Utilization of Genes Related to Key Traits in Brassicaceae Plants)

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