Interspecific and intergeneric hybridization and chromosomal engineering of Brassicaceae crops

In Brassicaceae crop breeding programs, wild relatives have been evaluated as genetic resources to develop new cultivars with biotic and abiotic stress resistance. This has become necessary because of the diversification of ecotypes of diseases and pests, changing food preferences, advances in production technology, the use of new approaches such as in vitro breeding programs, and the need for economical production of F(1) seed. To produce potential new cultivars, interspecific and intergeneric hybridizations have been performed between cultivated species and between cultivated species and their wild relatives. Furthermore, interspecific and intergeneric hybrids have been successfully produced using embryo rescue techniques. In this paper, we review the interspecific and intergeneric incompatibilities between Brassicaceae crops and their wild relatives, and the production, characterization, and improvement of synthetic amphidiploid lines, alien gene introgression lines, alloplasmic lines, monosomic alien chromosome addition lines, and monosomic alien chromosome substitution lines. The goal is to provide useful materials to support practical breeding strategies and to study the genetic effects of individual chromosomes on plant traits, the number of genes that control a trait, their linkage relationships, and genetic improvement in Brassicaceae crops.