Defining the fine-scale recombination landscape of the oilseed rape genome

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Agnieszka Golicz, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Plant Breeding and Plant Pathology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 490622210

The core concept behind plant breeding is the generation of new cultivars which outperform crossing parents by combining their most desirable traits. Crop improvement therefore relies on reshuffling of the genetic material, which happens during meiosis, a specialized form of cell division resulting in gamete formation. A key aspect of meiosis is the exchange of genetic material between homologous chromosomes during recombination. However, the number of recombination events, as well as their distribution across chromosomes, is limited, with the majority concentrated in a small fraction of the genome. The factors affecting the recombination landscape vary across species. This project aims to integrate several strategies to build fine-scale recombination maps for the major oilseed crop Brassica napus (oilseed rape) and understand the genetic, genomic and epigenomic features driving meiotic crossover formation. This will provide researchers and plant breeders with a knowledge basis to alter the frequency and positioning of crossovers, to break existing haplotype blocks and generate new, favourable combinations of alleles.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants