Oil crops for the future

QTL Mapping for Domestication-Related Characteristics in Field Cress (Lepidium campestre)—A Novel Oil Crop for the Subarctic Region

“…Several of our advanced breeding lines within the Lepidium domestication project are derived from campestre × heterophyllum hybrids. These lines possess various interesting characteristics that are lacked by lines derived, based only on crossbreeding of different genotypes of L. campestre , such as strong perennial growth habit and very high pod shatter resistance [ 14 ]. Hence, the markers at the flanking loci of the QTLs identified in this study can assist the selection of genotypes with desirable characteristics, particularly at the early generations of crossbreeding.…”

“…Research has shown that perennial seed crops are preferable, in terms of ecosystem services, than annuals and biennials, as they allow better energy use efficiency, carbon storage, and water and soil management [ 4 , 27 , 28 ]. One of the major objectives of field cress domestication is the development of perennial cultivars in parallel with the biennials [ 14 ]. Perenniality (PE) is one of the target characteristics in this study.…”

“…Perenniality (PE) is one of the target characteristics in this study. L. heterophyllum is a facultative short-lived perennial, closely related to and easily crossable with the biennial field cress [ 6 , 14 , 15 ]. Several campestre × heterophyllum hybrids have been generated within the field cress domestication project, and the proportion of perennating plants within F 2 populations derived from different parental pairs were as high as 30%.…”

“…Field cress has a high potential to be a lucrative oilseed crop in the temperate regions with positive environmental effects [ 7 , 13 , 14 ]. The seed yield potential, possible applications of the raw materials (such as seed oil and press cake), and contribution to the improvement of agricultural practices will strongly influence the commercialization of this crop [ 14 ]. To address some of these issues and accelerate the breeding process of field cress, we are developing genomic tools for marker-aided breeding.…”

“…Field cress has the same ploidy level and chromosome number (2n = 2x = 16) with L. heterophyllum Benth, which can produce viable and fertile interspecific hybrids when crossed with field cress [ 6 , 14 , 15 ]. In this study, an F 2 mapping population (and its F 3 progenies) of an interspecific hybrid between field cress and L. heterophyllum (referred to as “ campestre × heterophyllum ” hybrid in this research article) was used to study phenotypic variation and identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs for eight agronomically important characteristics: plant height (PH), number of stems per plant (NS), stem growth orientation (SO), flowering habit (FH), earliness (ER), seed yield per plant (SY), pod shattering resistance (SHR), and perenniality (PE).…”