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Gene transferability from transgenic Brassica napus L. to various subspecies and varieties of Brassica rapa

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Abstract

Gene transferability from transgenic rapeseed to various subspecies and varieties of Brassica rapa was assessed in this study. Artificial crossability was studied in 118 cultivars of 7 B. rapa subspecies and varieties with the transgenic rapeseed GT73 (Brassica napus) as the pollen donor. On average 5.7 seeds were obtained per pollination, with a range from 0.05 to 19.4. The heading type of B. rapa L. showed significantly higher crossability than non-heading types of B. rapa. The spontaneous outcrossing rate between B. rapa (female) and the transgenic rapeseed Ms8 × Rf3 (B. napus) (male) ranged from 0.039 to 0.406%, with an average of 0.19%. The fertilization process and the development of the hybrid seeds as shown by fluorescent staining techniques indicated that the number of adhered pollens on the stigma was reduced by 80%, the number of pollen tubes in the style was reduced by 2/3 and the fertilization time was delayed by over 20 h when pollinated with the transgenic rapeseed Ms8 × Rf3 in comparison with the bud self-pollination of B. rapa as control. About 10–70% of the interspecific hybrid embryos were aborted in the course of development. Some seeds looked cracked in mature pods, which showed germination abilities lower than 10%. The spontaneous outcrossing rates were much lower than the artificial crossability, and their survival fitness of the interspecific hybrid was very low, indicating that it should be possible to keep the adventitious presence of the off-plants under the allowed threshold, if proper measures are taken.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Major Special Project for Development of Transgenic Organisms (2008–2010), Ministry of Agriculture, China and the Social Welfare Project on Environmental Protection, Ministry of Environmental Protection, China (2009–2011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, Nanjing Agricultural University, No. 1 Weigang, 210095, Nanjing, China

    Ling Xiao & Deyue Yu

  2. Oil Crops Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No. 2 Xudong 2nd Road, 430062, Wuhan, China

    Ling Xiao, Changming Lu, Huijie Bo, Yuhua Wu, Gang Wu & Yinglong Cao

  3. KeRun Vegetable Research Institute of Tianjin, 300192, Tianjing, China

    Bing Zhang

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  1. Ling Xiao
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  2. Changming Lu
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  3. Bing Zhang
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  5. Yuhua Wu
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  6. Gang Wu
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  8. Deyue Yu
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Correspondence to Changming Lu or Deyue Yu.

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Xiao, L., Lu, C., Zhang, B. et al. Gene transferability from transgenic Brassica napus L. to various subspecies and varieties of Brassica rapa . Transgenic Res 18, 733–746 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11248-009-9261-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11248-009-9261-4

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