Variation in the flowering time orthologs BrFLC and BrSOC1 in a natural population of Brassica rapa.

Understanding the genetic basis of natural phenotypic variation is of great importance, particularly since selection can act on this variation to cause evolution. We examined expression and allelic variation in candidate flowering time loci in Brassica rapa plants derived from a natural population and showing a broad range in the timing of first flowering. The loci of interest were orthologs of the Arabidopsis genes FLC and SOC1 (BrFLC and BrSOC1, respectively), which in Arabidopsis play a central role in the flowering time regulatory network, with FLC repressing and SOC1 promoting flowering.

Effect of solvent on the lithium-bromine exchange of aryl bromides: reactions of n-butyllithium and tert-butyllithium with 1-bromo-4-tert-butylbenzene at 0 degrees C.

The outcome of reactions of 1-bromo-4-tert-butylbenzene (1), a representative aryl bromide, with n-BuLi or t-BuLi at 0 degrees C in a variety of solvent systems has been investigated. The products of reactions of 1 with n-BuLi vary significantly with changes in solvent composition: 1 does not react with n-BuLi in pure heptane; the exchange reaction to give (4-tert-butylphenyl)lithium, which is slow in pure diethyl ether, is virtually quantitative in heptane containing a small quantity of THF; and the reaction of 1 with n-BuLi in THF leads to considerable coupling. Lithium-bromine exchange is the virtually exclusive outcome of reactions of 1 with t-BuLi in every solvent studied except pure heptane: the presence of a small quantity of any of a variety of structurally diverse ethers (Et(2)O, THF, THP, MTBE) in the predominantly hydrocarbon medium affords (4-tert-butylphenyl)lithium, assayed as tert-butylbenzene, in yields exceeding 97%.