Open Access

ARTICLE

Comparative Karyotyping Reveals the Origin of Chinese Kale (Brassica oleracea var. alboglabra)

Sha Luo¹, Shuang Wu¹, Junyan Song¹, Xuena Yu¹, Kehao Liang¹, Zhi Huang¹, Yi Tang¹, Huanxiu Li¹, Victor Hugo Escalona², Zhifeng Chen³, Fen Zhang^1,*, Bo Sun^1,*

1 College of Horticulture, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, 611130, China
2 Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Chile, Santa Rosa 11315, Santiago, 8820808, Metropolitan Region, Chile
3 College of Biology and Agriculture, Zunyi Normal University, Zunyi, 563006, China

* Corresponding Authors: Fen Zhang. Email: ; Bo Sun. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Plant Genetic Diversity and Evolution)

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2025, 94(2), 521-538. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2025.061099

Received 17 November 2024; Accepted 27 January 2025; Issue published 06 March 2025

Abstract

This study conducted karyotype analysis on 56 Chinese kale varieties from Guangdong and Fujian provinces using conventional chromosome analysis methods. The varieties were categorized into four groups based on their origin and flower color: white-flower Chinese kale originating from Guangdong (GW), yellow-flower Chinese kale originating from Guangdong (GY), white-flower Chinese kale originating from Fujian (FW), and yellow-flower Chinese kale originating from Fujian (FY). Karyotype differences among the four groups of Chinese kale were analyzed, and the evolutionary relationship between yellow-flower and white-flower Chinese kale from the two regions was inferred based on karyotype parameters. The results indicated that all Chinese kale varieties were diploid with 2n = 2x = 18, including a pair of satellites. The chromosome types included median-centromere (m) and sub-median-centromere (sm), and the karyotypes were 1A and 2A, a sper karyotype asymmetry index. The karyotype 1A of Chinese kale was identified for the first time. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) identified nine karyotypic indicators that differentiated the four groups, and these differences were further visualized using heatmaps and box plots. Based on the evolution trends in the four groups and PLS-DA analysis, it was speculated that white-flower Chinese kale originated from Guangdong, yellow-flower Chinese kale originated from Fujian, and GY and FW were derived from the cross of GW and FY. This study provides a reference for understanding the genetic relationships between Chinese kale in Guangdong and Fujian, and offers a cytological basis for the evolution, hybridization, and phylogenetic relationships of Chinese kale.

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Keywords

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Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material File

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