Seedling development traits in Brassica napus examined by gene expression analysis and association mapping.

Background: An optimal seedling development of Brassica napus plants leads to a higher yield stability even under suboptimal growing conditions and has therefore a high importance for plant breeders. The objectives of our study were to (i) examine the expression levels of candidate genes in seedling leaves of B. napus and correlate these with seedling development as well as (ii) detect genome regions associated with gene expression levels and seedling development traits in B.

Multiplexed digital gene expression analysis for genetical genomics in large plant populations.

Digital gene expression (DGE) analysis is a cost-effective method for large-scale quantitative transcriptome analysis using second generation sequencing. Here we describe how adaptation of DGE with barcode indexing in large segregating plant populations of over 100 genotypes can be applied for successful expression QTL (eQTL) and gene expression network analysis to develop transcript-based markers for breeding.