Spontaneous male sterility is an advantageous trait for both producing hybrids and understanding the developmental process of the male reproductive unit in many crops. Lu et al. use a map-based cloning strategy together with comparative mapping to study the triallelic genetic male-sterile locus BnMs5 in Brassica napus, and delimit it to a 21-kb fragment of the [...]

Low levels of phosphorous in soils seriously limit seed production of Brassica napus. Ding et al. investigate phenotypic variation of seed yield and yield-related traits in B. napus plants grown with contrasting supplies of P, and identify a total of 74 putative quantitative trait loci (QTLs). The results suggest that different genetic determinants are involved [...]