UNIVERSITE DE BOURGOGNE THÈSE Yongbo LIU - Université de ...
UNIVERSITE DE BOURGOGNE THÈSE Yongbo LIU - Université de ...
UNIVERSITE DE BOURGOGNE THÈSE Yongbo LIU - Université de ...
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ARTICLE 1<br />
The effect of seed size on plant fitness with implication for transgene flow<br />
between oilseed rape (Brassica napus) and wild brown mustard (Brassica<br />
juncea)<br />
<strong>Yongbo</strong> <strong>LIU</strong>, Zhixi TANG, Henri DARMENCY, C. Neal STEWART, Jr., Wei WEI, Keping<br />
MA<br />
Abstract<br />
Recent work has advanced the h ypothesis that gene flow could b e hampered b y small seed<br />
size of hybrids formed between crop cultivars and their wild relatives as small seeds may be<br />
disadvantaged in their early establishment to plants in nature. Herein we report plant fitness of<br />
three seed-size categories in hybrids formed between transgenic oilseed rape (Brassica napus)<br />
and w ild B. j uncea as well as i n t heir p arents, P lant d ensity is co nsi<strong>de</strong>red as an i mportant<br />
factor. Plant <strong>de</strong>nsity and seed size significantly affected plant growth and reproduction. The<br />
influence of seed size on plant fitness varied among genetic backgrounds and was affected by<br />
plant <strong>de</strong>nsity and competing neighbors. Small-see<strong>de</strong>d transgenic oilseed rape plants had lower<br />
fitness than larger-see<strong>de</strong>d plants. Plants from small-sized seeds had <strong>de</strong>layed flowering but did<br />
not ha ve di fferent bi omass a nd s eed out put i n non-transgenic F 1 and wild B. j uncea, and<br />
small-see<strong>de</strong>d plants had the same fitness as large-see<strong>de</strong>d ones in transgenic F1. These results<br />
imply that further gene flow could not be reduced by the production of small-sized seeds in<br />
transgenic hybrids in field. In<strong>de</strong>ed, consi<strong>de</strong>ring competition factors and also that small seeds<br />
can persist in soil and/or disperse more easily compared to larger seeds, biosafety and gene<br />
flow could actually be more problematic in small-see<strong>de</strong>d transgenic hybrids.<br />
Key words: commercial release, competition, gene flow, plant <strong>de</strong>nsity, seed size, transgenic<br />
crops<br />
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