Advances in genetic improvement of cauliflower (Brassica oleracea L. var. botrytis L.).

Citation:

Singh BK. 2015. Advances in genetic improvement of cauliflower (Brassica oleracea L. var. botrytis L.). In: Novel Genomic Tools and Modern Genetics and Breeding Approaches for Vegetable Crops Improvement (Pandey S, Singh B, Mishra GP, Karkute SG Eds). ICAR-IIVR Training Manual No. 66, ICAR-IIVR, Varanasi, India, pp 101-115.

E-mail: bksinghkushinagar@yahoo.co.in

Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea L. var. botrytis L.), an important member of cole crops (Brassica oleracea), is one of the most popular vegetables worldwide. The word Cole seems to come from the abbreviation of the word ‘caulis’ meaning stem, and it was variously spelt as Kale (English), Kohl (German), Kool (Dutch), Kal (Scandinavian), Kaali (Finnish), Kaol and Kol (Breton), Chou (French), Col (Spanish), Cal (Irish), Cavolo (Italian), and Couve (Portuguese). The Cole crops are a group of highly differentiated plants and these are generally grown all over the world from tropical to arctic climatic conditions. The present concept of curd “pre-floral fleshy apical meristem” consists of a shoot system with short internodes, branch apices and bracts. Globally, cauliflower grows at the latitude 11-60 °N with average temperature ranging from 5-8 °C to 25-28 °C. In its vegetative growth period, it may withstand temperature as low as –10 °C and as high as 40 °C for a few days. Both in world as well as India, cauliflower follows cabbage in importance with regard to area (1258 and 433.9 thousand ha), production (22840 and 8573 thousand Mt) and productivity (18.2 and 19.8 Mt/ha), respectively (NHB 2014). In India, cauliflower is grown in the hills and the plains at altitude ranged from 11-35 °N and temperature ranged from 5-40 °C. Important states producing cauliflowers in India are West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat, Haryana, Chhatishgarh, Jharkhand, Assam and Uttar Pradesh (NHB 2014). It is also grown in northern Himalayas and in Nilgiri hills. The curds of cauliflower are harvested from September to February in northern Indian plains and from March to November in the hills of North and South India. Over the last 15 years, cauliflower’s acreage and production in India is increased continuously by 60.7% & 75.3%, respectively; but its productivity increased only 9.1%.

References:

Ahluwalia KS, Swarup V and Chatterjee SS. 1977. Inheritance of qualitative characters in Indian cauliflower. Veg Sci 4: 67–80.

Chakrabarty R, Viswakarma N, Bhat SR, Kirti PB, Singh BD and Chopra VL. 2002. Agrobacterium mediated transformation of cauliflower: optimization of protocol and development of Bt-transgenic cauliflower. J Biosciences 27: 495–503.

Chatterjee SS and Kabir J. 2002. Cole crops. In: Vegetable Crops vol.-I (Bose TK, Kabir J, Maity TK, Parthasarthy VA and Som MG Eds). Naya Prokash, 206 Bidhan Sarani, Kolkata.

Crisp P and Tapsell CR. 1993. Cauliflower- Brassica oleracea L. In: Genetic Improvement of Vegetable Crops (Kalloo G and Bergh BO Eds). Pergamon Press, Oxford, New York, USA, pp 157–178. 

Dias JS and Ortiz R (2014). Advances in transgenic vegetable and fruit breeding. Agril Sci 5: 1448–1467.

Dickson MH, Lee CY and Bramble AE. 1988. Orange-curd high carotene cauliflower inbreds, NY156, NY163, and NY165. HortScience 23: 778–779.

Gill HS. 1993. Improvement of Cole crops. In: Advances in Horticulture vol.5-Vegetable Crops: Part I (Chadha KL and Kalloo G Eds). Malhotra Publishing House, New Delhi, pp 287–303.

Gray AR and Crisp P. 1976. Breeding system, taxonomy and breeding strategy in cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis L.). Euphytica 26: 369–375.

Kachroo A, Schopfer CR, Nasrallah ME and Nasrallah JB. 2001. Allele-specific receptor-ligand interactions in Brassica self-incompatibility. Science 293: 1824–1826.

Mariani C, De Beuckeleer M, Truettner J, Leemans J and Goldberg RB. 1990. Induction of male sterility in plants by a chimaeric ribonuclease gene. Nature 347: 737–741.

Metwali EMR, Fuller MP and Jellings AJ. 2012. Agrobacterium mediated transformation of anti-stress genes into cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis L.)- transformation and confirmation of stress tolerance. Aust J Basic Appl Sci 6(5): 31–39.

Nasrallah JB and Nasrallah ME. 1993. Pollen-stigma signaling in the sporophytic self-incompatibility response. Plant Cell 5: 1325–1335.

Nieuwhof N. 1969. Cole crops. Leonard Hill, London, UK.

Ogura H. 1968. Studies on the new male-sterility in Japanese radish, with special reference to the utilization of this sterility towards the practical raising of hybrid seeds. Mem Fac Agric Kagoshima Univ. 6: 39–78.

Pearson OH. 1972. Cytoplasmically inherited male sterility characters and flavor components from the species cross Brassica nigra (L) Koch × B. oleracea L.  J Amer Soc Hort Sci 97 (3): 397–402.

Prakash S, Wu XM and Bhat SR. 2011. History, evolution, and domestication of Brassica crops. In: Plant Breeding Reviews vol. 35 (Janick J Ed).  John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New Jersey, pp 19–84.

Ram HH. 2000. Vegetable breeding- principles and practices. Kalyani Publishers, Ludhiana.

Sato K, Nishio T, Kimura R, Kusaba M, Suzuki T, Hatakeyama K, Ockendon DJ and Satta Y. 2002. Co-evolution of the S-locus genes SRK, SLG and SP11/SCR in Brassica oleracea and B. rapa. Genetics 162: 931–940.

Sharma RP. 1998. Role of biotechnological options for vegetable breeding. In: Advanced Technologies in Improvement of Vegetable Crops including Cole Crops (Chakraborty AK and Singh N Eds). Division of Vegetable Crops, IARI, Pusa, New Delhi, pp 48–51.

Sidki S. 1962. Morphology of curd of cauliflower. Amer J Bot 49: 290–297.

Singh BK and Devi J. 2015. Improved production technology for Cole crops (Brassica oleracea). In: Improved Production Technologies in Vegetable Crops (Singh N, Roy S, Karmakar P, Chaurasia SNS, Gupta S and Singh B Eds.). IIVR Training Manual No. 59, Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi, pp 102–119.

Singh BK, Sharma SR and Singh B. 2010. Heterosis for superoxide dismutase, peroxidase and catalase enzymes in the heads of cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata L). J Genetics 89 (2): 217–221.

Swarup V and Chatterjee SS. 1972. Origin and genetic improvement of Indian cauliflower. Eco Bot 26: 381–393.
U N. 1935. Genome analysis in Brassica with special reference to the experimental formation of B. napus and peculiar mode of fertilization. Jpn J Bot 7: 389–452.