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Research with Fast Plants and other Rapid-Cycling Brassicas Brassicas
are a highly diverse group of crop plants that have great economic value
as vegetables and as sources of condiment mustard, edible and industrial
oil, animal fodder, and green manure.
Rapid-cycling populations of six economically important species in
the genus Brassica have unusual potential for researching many problems in
plant biology and for use in education. Rapid-cycling Brassicas can
produce up to ten generations of seed per year and serve as models for
research in genetics, host-parasite relations, molecular biology, cell
biology, plant biochemistry, population biology, and plant breeding. These
plants can also be used in the classroom as convenient, rapidly
responding, living plant materials for hands-on learning at all levels of
education. The primary
educational species is rapid-cycling Brassica rapa,
more commonly known as Fast Plants. The Crucifer
Genetics Cooperative
(CrGC) is the germplasm bank for Fast Plants and has been established to
develop, acquire, maintain and distribute seed from and information about
various genetic stocks of rapid-cycling Brassica and Raphanus species as
well as Crucifer-specific pathogens (listing available upon request). One of the goals of this website is to provide connections between scientists and others about their current research areas with Fast Plants. The following is a list of current and on-going research with Fast Plants and other rapid-cycling Brassica species. For information on posting your research, contact info@fastplants.org for details.
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