Cleistogamy of oilseed rape, a way to prevent cross-fertilization between adjacent fields

• Published in: Plant breeding Vol. 130; no. 3; pp. 338 - 344
• Main Authors: Leflon, Martine, Hüsken, Alexandra, Kightley, Simon, Pinochet, Xavier
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2011; Blackwell
• Subjects: Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Biological and medical sciences; Brassica napus; Brassica napus var. napus; cleistogamy; co-existence; Coexistence; Crops; Cross-fertilization; cross-pollination; erucic acid; erucic acid content; Flowering; Flowers; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; genes; Genetics and breeding of economic plants; insects; Plant breeding; Pollen; pollen flow; Seeds; Wind; Oilseed rape; Cross pollination; Brassica napus var. oleifera; pollen flow; Monounsaturated fatty acid; ω-9 fatty acid; Erucic acid; Coexistence; Dispersion; Prevention; cross-pollination; Allogamy; co-existence; Cruciferae; Dicotyledones; erucic acid content; Angiospermae; Genetic improvement; Brassica napus; Unsaturated fatty acid; Spermatophyta; Pollen; Cleistogamy; Oil plant (vegetal)
• ISSN: 0179-9541; 1439-0523
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1439-0523.2010.01828.x

With 3 figures and 4 tables ABSTRACT: At the field scale, pollen flow between adjacent fields limits the potential of coexistence of different farming production systems, especially for allogamous crops like oilseed rape whose pollen is disseminated by insects or wind. In this article, we examine the efficiency of cleistogamy in an oilseed rape line which showed between 90% and 99% of flowers closed at flowering, in limiting deposition of allo-pollen. Five trials were established, consisting of two adjacent blocks, the one sown with the cleistogamous low-erucic acid line and the other with a classically flowering high-erucic acid line, used as source of contaminating pollen, itself artificially contaminated with a 1% mix of cleistogamous plants. Analyses showed that cross-fertilization rates of cleistogamous plants, estimated through erucic acid contents of seeds collected from them, were lower than those generally observed in oilseed rape: it averaged 10.1% on isolated plants within the erucic blocks, reached to the maximum 14% immediately adjacent to the erucic block, then decreased exponentially at higher distances. Cleistogamy appeared therefore as one imperfect means of gene bio-containment.