CONSERVED COLLARD LANDRACES ARE ABUNDANT AND DIVERSE SOURCES OF ALIPHATIC GLUCOSINOLATES

Stansell, Zachary James

CONSERVED COLLARD LANDRACES ARE ABUNDANT AND DIVERSE SOURCES OF ALIPHATIC GLUCOSINOLATES

Authors

Stansell, Zachary James

Abstract

Aliphatic glucosinolates form an important class of metabolites in Brassicas whose cognate isothiocyanates may provide chemoprotective effects in humans. Although certain B. oleracea crops have well documented glucosinolate profiles, collard (Brassica oleracea L. subsp. oleracea convar. acephala var. viridis) remains relatively unexplored. Recently, 85 collard landraces were collected from the coastal plain region of the southeastern United States from seed savers and farmers. In the last few decades, the diversity of cultivated collards has likely been diminished due to the wide scale adoption of commercial F1 hybrid cultivars. The objectives of this study were to: [a] compare glucosinolate profiles within commercially available collard cultivars against a pool of recently conserved collard landraces held within the National Plant Germplasm collection; [b] identify any accessions with a particularly distinct or abundant glucosinolate profile (i.e. elevated glucoraphanin); and [c] determine the potential of Brassica oleracea L. viridis as a target for chemoprotective based plant breeding.