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Gene flow hampered by low seed size of hybrids between oilseed rape and five wild relatives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2008

Wei Wei  and
Henri Darmency
Wei Wei
Affiliation:
National Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Science, 20 Nanxincun, Beijing 100093, China
Henri Darmency*
Affiliation:
Unité Mixte de Recherche sur la Biologie et la Gestion des Adventices, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, INRA, 17 rue Sully, Dijon BP 86510, 21065, France
*
*Correspondence darmency@dijon.inra.fr
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Abstract

Recent concern about gene flow from transgenic plants to weedy species has attracted much research on the fitness of their hybrids. However, no studies have been reported on the very early effects of the seed size of hybrids compared with parental plants for germination, seedling establishment and plant growth. We produced hybrids between male sterile Brassica napus L. (oilseed rape) and five weedy relatives, including Brassica juncea (L.) Czern, B. nigra (L.) Koch, B. rapa L., Hirschfeldia incana (L.) Lagrèze-Fossat and Raphanus raphanistrum L. The hybrid seeds formed between B. napus and B. rapa varied in size, while all the hybrid seeds formed with the other species were small. In a direct-seeded field experiment, small seeds of both parents and hybrids had a lower frequency of emergence and a lower seedling survival rate than large seeds, and resulted in later flowering with less biomass. However, no difference was recorded in a transplant experiment, indicating that growth in the juvenile period was sensitive to the small seed class in field conditions only. The optimum environmental conditions in the greenhouse probably homogenized the developmental differences observed at the early stage, and thus reduced the variation during subsequent growth in the field. This point has not been, but should be, considered in risk assessment of transgenic plants. The lower seedling establishment of small-seeded hybrids could hamper further gene flow.

Keywords

Brassica napusgenetically modified cropsgrowth potentialinterspecific hybridsseed size
Type
Research Article
Information
Seed Science Research , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , June 2008 , pp. 115 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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