The genus
Brassica is one of the core genera within the tribe
Brassicea. It comprises a large number of crops with a wide spectrum of morphological variation that can be cultivated under a variety of agro-climatic conditions.
Brassicas provide vegetable oil, fresh and preserved vegetables, fodder and condiments, as well as being important sources of dietary fibre, vitamin C and nutritionally beneficial factors including anti-cancer compounds [
1]. There are six representative species in the
Brassica genus including three diploid species
B. rapa (AA, 2n = 20),
B. nigra (BB, 2n = 16) and
B. oleracea (CC, 2n = 18), and three amphidiploids
B. juncea (AABB, 2n = 36),
B. napus (AACC, 2n = 38) and
B. carinata (BBCC, 2n = 34). The genetic relationships among these
Brassica species are well defined in U's triangle [
2]. One of the diploid species,
B. rapa, comprises a variety of morphologically diverse cultivated types including Chinese cabbage, misuna, aburana, flowering cabbage, turnip, turnip rape, yellow sarson, tatsoi and komatsuna, and these provide leaf heads, leaves, flowering stems, turnips and seeds, the productive organs for economical consumption [
3,
4]. Furthermore,
B. rapa is an excellent model for studying polyploidy genome evolution owing to its paleohexaploid ancestry and its close evolutionary relationships with
Arabidopsis thaliana [
5].
The multi-national
B. rapa Genome Sequencing Project (BrGSP) was launched in 2003 owing to the economical and biological importance of
B. rapa, and the A3 chromosome was sequenced using traditional Sanger technology [
5]. In 2008, rapid next generation sequencing technology was employed for
B. rapa genome sequencing and a high density genetic map based on sequence-tagged markers is necessary to anchor the assembled scaffolds to chromosomes. Several maps concerning
B. rapa have been published to be used as reference genetic maps for pseudochromosome assembly (
http://www.brassica-rapa.org) [
6-
8] despite their coverage only allowing in total 73.6% of the scaffolds being anchored on to chromosomes [The
Brassica rapa Genome Sequencing Project Consortium: The genome of the mesohexaploid crop species
Brassica rapa, submitted].
Genetic mapping is important for understanding the origin of and relationships among the genomes of
Brassica species. Genetic linkage maps can also provide improved insight into genome organization and evolution through comparative mapping, and serve as the basis for genetic studies concerning various agronomic traits through the localization of major genes and quantitative trait loci (QTLs). Furthermore, they can aid breeding programs with the development of marker assisted selection (MAS) [
9]. More than 20 genetic linkage maps have been constructed for
B. rapa using a range of marker types including Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms (RFLPs), random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs), sequence-related amplified polymorphisms (SRAPs) and simple sequence repeats (SSRs) [
6-
8,
10-
20]. However, there are limited published data concerning sequence-tagged PCR-markers, predominantly SSRs, mapped in
B. rapa [
6-
8,
15,
19], particularly markers that could provide anchors for the
B. rapa genome that are transferable to other mapping populations.
Recent developments in sequencing technology have simplified and accelerated the discovery of sequence variants, enabling development of sequence-based markers including single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertion/deletion polymorphisms (InDels) [
21]. InDels and SNPs are the markers of choice for high-resolution genetic mapping and association studies owing to their abundance and distribution throughout the genome [
22,
23]. For example, a study investigating genetic variation on human chromosome 22 suggested that InDels represent 18% of the polymorphisms on this chromosome [
24]. Studies concerning genetic variation in
A. thaliana have demonstrated that InDels represent 34% of all genetic polymorphisms [
25]. Furthermore, InDels can contribute directly to a phenotype [
26], or can associate with a phenotype as a result of linkage disequilibrium [
27]. By re-sequencing 1,398 sequence-tagged sites (STSs) in eight
B. rapa genotypes, Park et al. identified and characterized 6,753 InDels in the gene space of the
B. rapa genome [
28]. InDel polymorphisms are the second most frequent type of polymorphism in the genome, and can be genotyped using simple procedures including the analysis of size polymorphisms of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products on agarose gels [
29,
30]. Another advantage of InDel markers is the improbability of two InDel mutations being exactly the same length and at the same genomic position. Therefore, shared InDels represent identity-by-descent [
31]. Very few InDel markers have been used to construct genetic linkage maps of
B. rapa. With the recent completion of the sequencing of the
B. rapa genome [The
Brassica rapa Genome Sequencing Project Consortium: The genome of the mesohexaploid crop species
Brassica rapa, submitted], the development of whole genome-wide InDel markers based on re-sequencing has become feasible, and this will be a useful resource for the international research community.
In this study, InDel and SSR markers, both of which are sequence-tagged PCR markers, were used to construct a high resolution genetic map of B. rapa. The map was used as a reference linkage map to anchor and orient sequence scaffolds for B. rapa genome assembly.