The whole gene map of mustard mustard was successfully drawn.

The successful mapping of the whole gene map of mustard tells you why mustard has a unique "Chinese flavor".

Recently, the team of Professor Zhang Mingfang, Department of Horticulture, School of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, has drawn the world's first complete gene map of mustard through high-throughput sequencing technology, which will be of great significance to the improvement of mustard vegetables.

Vegetable mustard is an important processed vegetable in China. Mustard, potherb and kohlrabi all belong to different varieties. Through high-throughput sequencing technology, combined with the constructed high-density genetic map, Zhang Mingfang's team completed the high-quality genome map of allopolyploid mustard mustard (AABB genome) in Brassica for the first time, and further enriched and deepened the understanding of the "genealogy" of mustard. It was found that mustard species formed 39000 ~ 55000 years ago, which is a single geographical origin, and its A subgenome is more closely related to Brassica campestris, and then evolved into two main groups: vegetable mustard and oil mustard.

Why do mustard and dried plum vegetables have a unique "Chinese flavor"? The research team found two groups of homologous gene sequences, one of which is related to glucosinolates metabolism, which has undergone differential evolution, which is why some mustard mustard smells fragrant and some fragrance is not obvious. The other group is related to oil metabolism, which determines the oil yield and oil composition of oil mustard. Associate Professor Yang Jinghua, the first author of the paper, said that over the past half a century, many scholars have extensively studied complex genome assembly and homologous gene expression in wheat, cotton, rape and other model crops. however, the mechanism of homologous gene expression and selection in polyploid species has not been revealed. This mechanism was finally revealed by the "native" crop mustard in China: the subgenomes of allopolyploid mustard evolved asymmetrically, and the genes with significant differences in homologous genes among subgenomes showed a faster evolution rate. these genes are selected in the differentiation of vegetable and oil mustard.