Nelly N, Rusli R, Yaherwandi, Yusmarika F (2010) Diversity of parasitoid Lepidopterans larvae on Brassicaceae. Biodiversitas 11: 93-96. Diversity of parasitoid lepidopterans larvae on Brassicaceae was conducted in several Brassicaceae areas in West Sumatra. The objective of the research was to study the diversity of parasitoid lepidopterans larvae on Brassicaceae. Sampling was conducted on Brassicaceae plants: cabbage, cauliflower, petsai and sawi. It was taken five samples in every plot, by using W method. Collection technique was done by direct collecting larvae, by using yellow trap and insect net. Adult of parasitoids was identified until family. The result of the research indicated that there was the diversity of parasitoid lepidopterans, the highest diversity was found on sawi. The number of parasitoid Lepidopterans larvae found was 566, 83 species, 9 families. The degree of parasitation on the three plants was low.

Brassicaceae is an important family of the plant kingdom which includes several plants of major economic importance. The Brassica spp. and Arabidopsis share much-conserved colinearity between their genomes which can be exploited for the genomic research in Brassicaceae crops. In this study, 131,286 ESTs of five Brassicaceae species were assembled into unigene contigs and compared with Arabidopsis gene indices. Almost all the unigenes of Brassicaceae species showed high similarities with Arabidopsis genes except those of B. napus, where 90% of unigenes were found similar. A total of 9,699 SSRs were identified in the unigenes. PCR primers were designed based on this information and amplified across species for validation. Functional annotation of unigenes showed that the majority of the genes are present in metabolism and energy functional classes. It is expected that comparative genome analysis between Arabidopsis and related crop species will expedite research in the more complex Brassica genomes. This would be helpful for genomics as well as evolutionary studies, and DNA markers developed can be used for mapping, tagging, and cloning of important genes in Brassicaceae.

The effect of plant material from Brassicaceae plants - the mustard seed meal and rapeseed meal, added to soil or peat substrate, on Verticillium wilt of pepper was evaluated in laboratory and greenhouse conditions. It was stated that the addition of these materials decreased infestation of pepper vascular vessels caused by Verticillium dahliae. The decomposition of rapeseed meal and mustard seed meal increased concentration of ammonia, the compound toxic to many pathogens. The increase of total bacteria, actinomycetes, spore forming bacteria were also observed. The materials from Brassicaceae plants positive influenced on plant development and chlorophyll content in pepper leaves.

The effect of plant material from Brassicaceae plants - the mustard seed meal and rapeseed meal, added to soil or peat substrate, on Verticillium wilt of pepper was evaluated in laboratory and greenhouse conditions. It was stated that the addition of these materials decreased infestation of pepper vascular vessels caused by Verticillium dahliae. The decomposition of rapeseed meal and mustard seed meal increased concentration of ammonia, the compound toxic to many pathogens. The increase of total bacteria, actinomycetes, spore forming bacteria were also observed. The materials from Brassicaceae plants positive influenced on plant development and chlorophyll content in pepper leaves.

Molecular genetic studies of self-incompatibility (SI) can be difficult to perform in non-model self-incompatible species. Recently, an Arabidopsis thaliana transgenic model was developed for analysis of the SI system that operates in the Brassicaceae by inter-species transfer of genes encoding the S-locus receptor kinase (SRK) and its ligand, the S-locus cysteine-rich (SCR) protein, which are the determinants of SI specificity in the stigma and pollen, respectively. This article reviews the various ways in which the many advantages of A. thaliana and the extensive tools and resources available in this model species have allowed the use of transgenic self-incompatible SRK-SCR plants to address long-standing issues related to the mechanism and evolution of SI in the Brassicaceae. It also presents the unexpected results of a candidate gene approach aimed at determining if genes related to genes previously reported to be involved in the SI response of Brassica and genes required for disease resistance, which exhibits many similarities to the SI response, are required for SI in A. thaliana. These various studies have provided a novel insight into the basis of specificity in the SRK-SCR interaction, the nature of the signalling cascade that culminates in the inhibition of 'self' pollen, and the physiological and morphological changes that are associated with transitions between the outbreeding and inbreeding modes of mating in the Brassicaceae.

The self-pollination barrier of self-incompatibility in the Brassicaceae is based on the activity of a polymorphic stigma receptor and its pollen ligand, whose allele-specific interaction triggers a signaling cascade within the stigma epidermal cell that culminates in the inhibition of pollen tube development. Recent analyses have identified signaling intermediates and revealed unexpected cross-talk between self-incompatibility signaling and pistil development. The self-incompatibility response is now thought to be based on a phosphorylation and ubiquitin-mediated degradation pathway that inhibits the secretion of factors required for successful pollination. Because manipulation of the identified signaling intermediates results in only partial disruption of the self-incompatibility reaction, this pathway likely functions in conjunction with other as-yet unidentified signaling pathways to effect complete inhibition of self-pollen.

In the Brassicaceae, the acceptance of compatible pollen and the rejection of self-incompatible pollen by the pistil involves complex molecular communication systems between the pollen grain and the female reproductive structures. Preference towards species related-pollen combined with self-recognition systems, function to select the most desirable pollen; and thus, increase the plant's chances for the maximum number of successful fertilizations and vigorous offspring. The Brassicaceae is an ideal group for studying pollen-pistil interactions as this family includes a diverse group of agriculturally relevant crops as well as several excellent model organisms for studying both compatible and self-incompatible pollinations. This review will describe the cellular systems in the pistil that guide the post-pollination events, from pollen capture on the stigmatic papillae to pollen tube guidance to the ovule, with the final release of the sperm cells to effect fertilization. The interplay of other recognition systems, such as the self-incompatibility response and interspecific interactions, on regulating post-pollination events and selecting for compatible pollen-pistil interactions will also be explored.

Premise of the study: The evolution of asexual seed production (apomixis) from sexual relatives is a great enigma of plant biology. The genus Boechera is ideal for studying apomixis because of its close relation to Arabidopsis and the occurrence of sexual and apomictic species at low ploidy levels (diploid and triploid). Apomixis is characterized by three components: unreduced embryo-sac formation (apomeiosis), fertilization-independent embryogenesis (parthenogenesis), and functional endosperm formation (pseudogamy or autonomous endosperm formation). Understanding the variation in these traits within and between species has been hindered by the laborious histological analyses required to analyze large numbers of samples. METHODS: To quantify variability for the different components of apomictic seed development, we developed a high-throughput flow cytometric seed screen technique to measure embryo:endosperm ploidy in over 22000 single seeds derived from 71 accessions of diploid and triploid BOECHERA: Key results: Three interrelated features were identified within and among Boechera species: (1) variation for most traits associated with apomictic seed formation, (2) three levels of apomeiosis expression (low, high, obligate), and (3) correlations between apomeiosis and parthenogenesis/pseudogamy. CONCLUSIONS: The data presented here provide a framework for choosing specific genotypes for correlations with large "omics" data sets being collected for Boechera to study population structure, gene flow, and evolution of specific traits. We hypothesize that low levels of apomeiosis represent an ancestral condition of Boechera, whereas high apomeiosis levels may have been induced by global gene regulatory changes associated with hybridization.

Due to the importance of Microtheca ochroloma (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) as an insect-pest of Brassicaceae and to the lack of data regarding its natural enemies, the present research aims to report the first occurrence of Stiretrus decastigmus (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) preying M. ochroloma in Brassica chinensis L., at Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil (latitude: 29°43'28"S, longitude: 53°43'19"O, height: 95m). The collecting methodology and morphologic characteristics of the insects found were also described. | Em razão da importância de Microtheca ochroloma (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) como inseto-praga de Brassicaceae e da carência de informações relativas aos inimigos naturais desse crisomelídeo, o presente trabalho visa a relatar, pela primeira vez, a ocorrência de Stiretrus decastigmus (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) predando M. ochroloma em cultivo de Brassica chinensis L., em Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil (latitude: 29°43'28"S, longitude: 53°43'19"O e altitude: 95m). Também são descritas a metodologia de coleta e as características morfológicas dos espécimes encontrados.

Generalist insects like <i>Bemisia tabaci</i> (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) are capable of feeding on a wide range of plant botanical families. As a result, they have to cope with a tremendous diversity of plant defense secondary compounds. In many cases, resistance to these compounds is achieved by induced activity of detoxification (metabolic) mechanisms that include several enzyme super-families. One of them, the glutathione S-tranferases (GSTs), is capable of detoxifying (among other substrates) glucosinolates, a group of chemical defense compounds produced mainly by plant species belonging to the Brassicaceae. In this paper, changes in expression level of three <i>B. tabaci GST</i> genes (<i>BtGSTs</i>) were monitored after the insects were allowed to switch between Brassicaceae and cotton hosts. Our analysis revealed a significant increase in the expression of one gene, <i>BtGST2</i>, after switching from cotton to a Brassicaceae host (1.97- and 2.08-fold for white mustard and cabbage, respectively). In addition, a significant decrease in <i>BtGST2</i> expression (0.53-fold) was observed during switching from white mustard to cotton. A significant elevation in the expression of <i>BtGST2</i>, similar to the one observed when <i>B. tabaci</i> adult switched from feeding on cotton to feeding on white mustard, was observed when the nitrile 4-Hydroxybezyl cyanide was added to the artificial diet. 4-Hydroxybezyl cyanide is a toxic degradation product of Sinalbin, the major glucosinolate in white mustard. Taken together, these findings fit well our expectations from a detoxification system of generalist insect herbivores, because the ability to "turn on" the detoxification system only when required confers an adaptive plasticity that enables generalist insects to optimize their fitness according to the levels of toxins in their environment.