Cytological and morphological analysis of hybrids between Brassicoraphanus, and Brassica napus for introgression of clubroot resistant trait into Brassica napus L

Interspecific hybridization is a powerful tool for improvement of crop species, it has the potential to broaden the genetic base and create new plant forms for breeding programs. Synthetic allopolyploid is a widely-used model for the study of genetic recombination and fixed heterosis in Brassica. In Brassica napus breeding, identification and introgression of new sources of clubroot resistance trait from wild or related species into it by hybridization is a long-term crop management strategy for clubroot disease. Radish (Raphanus sativus L.) is a close relative of the Brassica and most radish accessions are immune to the clubroot disease. A synthesized allotetraploid Brassicoraphanus (RRCC, 2n = 36) between R. sativus cv. HQ-04 (2n = 18, RR) and Brassica oleracea var. alboglabra (L.H Bailey) (2n = 18, CC) proved resistant of multiple clubroot disease pathogen P. brassicae. To predict the possibility to transfer the clubroot resistance trait from the RR subgenome of allotetraploid Brassicoraphanus (RRCC, 2n = 36) into Brassica napus (AACC, 2n = 38), we analyzed the frequency of chromosome pairings in the F(1) hybrids produced from a cross between B. napus cv. HS5 and the allotetraploid, characterize the genomic composition of some backcrossed progeny (BC(1)) using GISH, BAC-FISH and AFLP techniques. The level of intergenomic pairing between A and R genomes in the F(1) hybrid was high, allosyndetic bivalents formed in 73.53% PMCs indicative of significant level of homeologous recombination between two genomes and high probability of incorporating chromosomal segments/genes from R-genome into A/C-genomes. The BC(1) plants inherited variant extra R chromosomes or fragments from allotetraploid as revealed by GISH and AFLP analysis. 13.51% BC(2) individuals were resistant to clubroot disease, and several resistance lines had high pollen fertility, Overall, the genetic material presented in this work represents a potential new genetic resource for practical use in breeding B. napus clubroot resistant cultivars.