Epsilon Open Archive

Abstract

Field cress (Lepidium campestre L.) is a biennial self-pollinated plant with a small genome size. The ever-increasing global population alongside climate change prompts urgent actions to save the ecosystem. Domesticating multi-purpose species such as field cress could be considered as part of the solution to mitigate the challenges posed by climate change and population growth. In addition to the oil producing potential, the domestication of field cress in arable lands has multitude effects – such as protecting environmental contamination and contributing as food and feed uses. In clues of these potentials, identifying the genomic variation underlying important traits using genomic tools is pivotal approach in field cress domestication. The main goal of the research in this thesis was to develop genomic tools for field cress domestication, specifically aiming at constructing the genetic linkage map, identifying the quantitative trait loci (QTL) underpinning domestication traits, and elucidating the common genetic variants associated with the seed yield as well as seed oil, protein, and moisture contents in field cress. An integrated mapping approach were performed to developing the first genetic linkage map for field cress. Relying on the linkage map, the identification of domestication QTL using linkage analysis as well as common variants using genome-wide association study (GWAS) were succeeded. Furthermore, the developed linkage map will be used in guiding to develop the reference genome using whole-genome sequencing (WGS) in field cress. Given further functional genomic efforts, the identified QTL and single variants could facilitate the process of domestication and genomicsassisted breeding in field cress, including the use of evolving approaches such as genome-wide prediction in the field cress.