Se describe una nueva especie procedente de la Sierra de Javalambre (Teruel): Erysimum javalambrense G. Mateo, M.B. Crespo & López Udias (Brassicaceae). Se comentan sus principales características morfológicas en relación con otros representantes próximos del género, que habitan en territorios colindantes. | A new species from Sierra de Javalambre (Teruel, E of Spain) is described: Erysimun javalambrense G. Mateo, M.B. Crespo & López Udias (Brassicaceae). Its morphological features are commented with regard to other taxa of the same taxonomic aggregate growing in the surrounding territories.

The Brassicaceae (syn. Cruciferae) is an economically important botanical family providing a diverse range of foliar, root and seed crops for both human and domesticated animal consumption. However, in common with other plant species the Brassicacae have been endowed with the capacity to synthesize a range of antinutritional compounds, the most important of which are the glucosinolates, S-methylcysteine sulfoxide, tannins and erucic acid. In this review the adverse and possible beneficial effects of the inclusion of these compounds in human and animal diets are reviewed together with their chemistry, biosynthesis and methods for their analysis.

Crop-weed hybridization can potentially influence the evolutionary ecology of wild populations. Many crops are known to hybridize with wild relatives, but few studies have looked at the long-term persistence of crop genes in the wild. This study investigated one factor in the hybridization process in radish: differential pollinator visitation to wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum) vs. crop-wild F1 hybrids (R. sativus x R. raphanistrum). Wild genotypes had yellow flowers, a recessive single-locus trait, whereas hybrids always had white or pale pink flowers. In experimental arrays in northern Michigan, total pollinator visitation was significantly biased toward wild plants when the frequencies of wild and hybrid plants were equal. Syrphid flies, the most frequent visitors, preferred wild plants while bumble bees showed no preference. This pattern was also observed when hybrid plants were overrepresented in the array (12 hybrid:2 wild). In contrast, when hybrid plants were rare (2 hybrid:12 wild), neither morph was preferred by any pollinator group. Later in the summer, pollinators were also observed in a large experimental garden with nearly equal frequencies of wild and hybrid plants. Cabbage butterflies (Pieris rapae) strongly overvisited wild plants, while bumble bees showed a slight preference for hybrids. Taken together, these studies suggest that F1 hybrids may not be at a disadvantage with regard to pollinator visits when they occur at low frequencies or when bumble bees are frequent flower visitors. Thus, variation in the proportion of white-flowered morphs among wild radish populations could be influenced by different histories of crop-to-wild hybridization, as well as by variation in the composition of local pollinator taxa.

In this paper, the volatile composition of raw and cooked broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower was studied. The vegetables were minced, liquefied and then cooked at 100 deg C for 60 min. The aroma compounds were extracted by microwave treatment and concentrated on KS112 polystirenic apolar resin. The extracts recovered from the resin with ethyl ether, were analyzed by GC/MS-SIM. The results obtained showed that the volatile fractions of the three vegetables were different from each other as for the number and the percent composition of the characteristic volatile compounds. In each vegetable, cooking induced the increase of sulphides and isothiocyanates as well as the decrease of thionitriles and nitriles | In questo lavoro e' stata studiata la composizione volatile del broccolo, cappuccio-verza e cavolfiore allo stato fresco e dopo cottura. I tre vegetali sono stati sminuzzati, fluidificati e poi cotti a 100 deg C per 60 min. I componenti volatili sono stati estratti con microonde e concentrati su resina polistirenica apolare KS112. Gli estratti volatili, recuperati dalla resina mediante eluizione con etere etilico, sono stati analizzati quali-quantitativamente per via GC/MS-SIM. I risultati ottenuti hanno messo in evidenza che le frazioni volatili dei tre vegetali allo stato fresco differiscono tra loro per il numero e la composizione percentuale dei componenti volatili caratteristici. Il processo di cottura causa nei tre vegetali un aumento dei solfuri e degli isotiocianati e la diminuzione dei tionitrili e nei nitrili

The crucifer family includes self-incompatible genera, such as Brassica, and self-fertile genera, such as Arabidopsis. To gain insight into mechanisms underlying the evolution of mating systems in this family, we used a selective comparative mapping approach between Brassica campestris plants homozygous for the S8 haplotype and Arabidopsis. Starting with markers flanking the self-incompatibility genes in Brassica, we identified the homeologous region in Arabidopsis as a previously uncharacterized segment of chromosome 1 in the immediate vicinity of the ethylene response gene ETR1. A total of 26 genomic and 21 cDNA markers derived from Arabidopsis yeast artificial and bacterial artificial chromosome clones were used to analyze this region in the two genomes. Approximately half of the cDNAs isolated from the region represent novel expressed sequence tags that do not match entries in the DNA and protein databases. The physical maps that we derived by using these markers as well as markers isolated from bacteriophage clones spanning the S8 haplotype revealed a high degree of synteny at the submegabase scale between the two homeologous regions. However, no sequences similar to the Brassica S locus genes that are known to be required for the self-incompatibility response were detected within this interval or other regions of the Arabidopsis genome. This observation is consistent with deletion of self-recognition genes as a mechanism for the evolution of autogamy in the Arabidopsis lineage.

The invasion process was documented from data on the labels of specimens stored in the East African Herbarium at the National Museums of Kenya. We analysed data from seven abundant alien plant species: Ageratum conyzoides L. (Asteraceae), Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Med. (Brassicaceae), Datura stramonium L. (Solanaceae), Galinsoga parviflora Cav. (Asteraceae), Tagetes minuta L. (Asteraceae), Spergula arvensis L. (Caryophyllaceae) and Stellaria media (L.) Vill. (Caryophyllaceae) and compared these data with the spread of two native weeds: Cynoglossum coeruleum A.DC. (Boraginaceae) and Senecio discifolius Oliv. (Asteraceae). Although all investigated species had been already recorded before the Second World War, most specimens were collected between 1960 and 1980. This regional spread is correlated with a change in the agricultural systems of Kenya. The early records of alien weeds were restricted to higher altitudes. With the increasing human population and the associated increase of agricultural activities (e.g. irrigation in arid areas) the weed species from South America were able to spread to lower altitudes.

Nine species of Brassica family were studied for the genetic control of in vitro regenerability from protoplast. In Brassica family, the protoplast culture should be kept in the dark after the protoplast isolation for the first three days to reduce the phenols as they affected cell division and growth of cells during the culture. The callus formation did not depend on the genotype since the protoplasts of all examined species showed a high microcallus and callus formation in V-KM and on MS-media, respectively. The protoplast regeneration of Brassicaceae was strongly dependent on the genotype. The examined species with the A-genome, namely Brassica campestris (AA), B. juncea (AABB) and B. napus (AACC) showed low capability of regeneration. Probably, the A-genome has an inhibitory effect on the regeneration in Brassica species. The genomes of B. nigra (BB) and B. oleracea (CC) had high frequency of protoplast regeneration. Their interaction enhanced the ability to regenerate since B. carinata (BBCC) showed the best regenerability from protoplasts. Moreover, Erucia sativa, Raphanus sativus and Sinapis alba could not form shoot from protoplasts.

The phytochemical system of mustard-oil glucosides (glucosinolates) accompanied by the hydrolytic enzyme myrosinase (beta-thioglucosidase), the latter usually compartmented in special myrosin cells, characterizes plants in 16 families of angio-sperms. Traditional classifications place these taxa in many separate orders and thus imply multiple convergences in the origin of this chemical defense system. DNA sequencing of the chloroplast rbcL gene for representatives of all 16 families and several putative relatives, with phylogenetic analyses by parsimony and maximum likelihood methods, demonstrated instead a single major clade of mustard-oil plants and one phylogenetic outlier. In a further independent test, DNA sequencing of the nuclear 18S ribosomal RNA gene for all these exemplars has yielded the same result, a major mustard-oil clade of 15 families (Akaniaceae, Bataceae, Brassicaceae, Bretschneideraceae, Capparaceae, Caricaceae, Gyrostemonaceae, Koeberliniaceae, Limnanthaceae, Moringaceae, Pentadiplandraceae, Resedaceae, Salvadoraceae, Tovariaceae, and Tropaeolaceae) and one outlier, the genus Drypetes, traditionally placed in Euphorbiaceae. Concatenating the two gene sequences (for a total of 3254 nucleotides) in a data set for 33 taxa, we obtain robust support for this finding of parallel origins of glucosinolate biosynthesis. From likely cyanogenic ancestors, the "mustard oil bomb" was invented twice.

Among the four closely related Phyllotreta species P. dilatata Thomson, 1866, P. flexuosa (Illiger, 1794), P. ochripes (Curtis, 1837) and P. tetrastigma (Comolli, 1837) several systematic problems occur due to the existence of colour pattern variation and morphological similarity. All four species feed on Brassicaceae, but P. tetrastigma, P. flexuosa and P. dilatata are monophagous in the field, whereas P. ochripes is oligophagous. Genetic differentiation and systematic relationships of the four species are studied by means of allozyme electrophoresis of 10 variable loci, with a total of 30 allelomorphs. Of the six alleles that are present only in a single species, none is diagnostic. Rogers modified genetic distance and Cavalli-Sforza & Edwards arc distance between all populations are calculated and Distance Wagner trees are constructed, revealing three major groups. P. ochripes is separated first, being the most distant species. The three other species are more closely related, and within this group P. dilatata is separated from the other two. The last group contains the populations of P. tetrastigma and P. flexuosa. In the differentiation between the different species host plant shifts and consequent genetic differentiation have been important.