Sexual transfer of Arabidopsis DNA to Brassica napus

Out of 400 reciprocal crosses made between Brassica napus and Arabidopsis thaliana, 200 maternal B. napus flowers produced 31 seeds and 10 seeds developed when A. thaliana was used as the female parent. Of the latter, three seeds successfully germinated but did not develop into mature plants. In contrast, plants from all 32 seeds generated from B. napus were established. DNA from these 31 plants was analysed by 18 probes mapped to the A. thaliana genome, two selectable marker genes and one A. thaliana species-specific repetitive probe. It was found that one plant had identical restriction fragments to A. thaliana with two of the 21 probes used. The gene flow within Brassicaceae is discussed in light of this result.