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Challenges and prospects for a potential allohexaploid Brassica crop

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Abstract

The production of a new allohexaploid Brassica crop (2n = AABBCC) is increasingly attracting international interest: a new allohexaploid crop could benefit from several major advantages over the existing Brassica diploid and allotetraploid species, combining genetic diversity and traits from all six crop species with additional allelic heterosis from the extra genome. Although early attempts to produce allohexaploids showed mixed results, recent technological and conceptual advances have provided promising leads to follow. However, there are still major challenges which exist before this new crop type can be realized: (1) incorporation of sufficient genetic diversity to form a basis for breeding and improvement of this potential crop species; (2) restoration of regular meiosis, as most allohexaploids are genetically unstable after formation; and (3) improvement of agronomic traits to the level of “elite” breeding material in the diploid and allotetraploid crop species. In this review, we outline these major prospects and challenges and propose possible plans to produce a stable, diverse and agronomically viable allohexaploid Brassica crop.

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Acknowledgements

This review paper was based on discussion in meetings held at the International Rapeseed Congress in Berlin in June 2019 and also at Justus Liebig University after the Congress. The co-authors from China and Germany were supported for their work by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFD0100601), the Sino-German Research Project (GZ 1362; DFG MA6473/3-1), the Science and Technology Department of Zhejiang Province (14th 5-Year New Oil Crops Breeding), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LQ20C130006), and the Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Modern Crop Production (JCIC-MCP). The Mason lab is partially funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy–EXC 2070–390732324.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Crop Science and Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Crop Germplasm, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Kangni Zhang, Muhammad A. Farooq, Faisal Islam & Weijun Zhou

  2. Plant Breeding Department, Justus Liebig University, 35392, Giessen, Germany

    Annaliese S. Mason & Daniela Quezada-Martinez

  3. Plant Breeding Department, The University of Bonn, Katzenburgweg 5, 53115, Bonn, Germany

    Annaliese S. Mason & Daniela Quezada-Martinez

  4. National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, College of Plant Science & Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Dandan Hu & Jun Zou

  5. College of Life Sciences, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou, 310018, China

    Su Yang

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  1. Kangni Zhang
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  8. Jun Zou
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Contributions

KZ, ASM, JZ, DQM and WZ conceptualized the manuscript; KZ, ASM, MAF, JZ and WZ drafted the manuscript; DQM and ASM prepared Fig. 1, KZ and FI prepared Fig. 2, KZ, DQM and DH prepared Fig. 3, and KZ and SY prepared Table 1. ASM, DQM, JZ and WZ contributed to critical revisions of the manuscript. All authors approved the final version for submission.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jun Zou or Weijun Zhou.

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All authors declared that they have no competing interest.

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Communicated by Rajeev K. Varshney.

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Zhang, K., Mason, A.S., Farooq, M.A. et al. Challenges and prospects for a potential allohexaploid Brassica crop. Theor Appl Genet 134, 2711–2726 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-021-03845-8

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