Brassica carinata Raw sequence reads. Brassica carinata

Ethiopian mustard (Brassica carinata) is being considered as a potential sustainable source of vegetable oil, in particular for the biofuel industry, thus there is significant interest in developing appropriate resources to expedite breeding efforts. Brassica carinata is a relatively young allopolypoid formed from the fusion of two related diploid Brassica species. Without access to a genome sequence, we have exploited reference genomes from the related diploids to identify and characterise over ten thousand genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers in 620 B. carinata lines, the largest of any such study to date. These data were used to elucidate the level of diversity within the species, which suggested a limited number of events led to its formation, with little or no introgression from the related diploids. Notably, the presence of clear population structure appeared to be the result of selective breeding for a small number of genomic regions containing candidate genes for seed quality traits. Collectively the available germplasm and associated genotypic data provide a valuable platform for further targeted adaptation and improvement of this novel oilseed crop.