Comparative genomics of Brassicaceae crops

The family Brassicaceae is one of the major groups of the plant kingdom and comprises diverse species of great economic, agronomic and scientific importance, including the model plant Arabidopsis. The sequencing of the Arabidopsis genome has revolutionized our knowledge in the field of plant biology and provides a foundation in genomics and comparative biology. Genomic resources have been utilized in Brassica for diversity analyses, construction of genetic maps and identification of agronomic traits. In Brassicaceae, comparative sequence analysis across the species has been utilized to understand genome structure, evolution and the detection of conserved genomic segments. In this review, we focus on the progress made in genetic resource development, genome sequencing and comparative mapping in Brassica and related species. The utilization of genomic resources and next-generation sequencing approaches in improvement of Brassica crops is also discussed.