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“Shooting up like cabbage,” says a common Dutch expression. It’s actually true because cabbage grows faster than most other kinds of vegetable. Dr Guusje Bonnema and Dr Wang Xiaowu know precisely why. They have collaborated to chart the genes of Brassica rapa. Bok choy, turnip, rapeseed, Chinese cabbage, and broccoletto are members of the Brassica rapa family. Dr Guusje Bonnema has a poster in her office at Wageningen University showing them all. Each species is accompanied by a corresponding passport photo of a member of Dr Bonnema’s Brassica research group, a varied collection of scientists from northern and southern Europe, China, Pakistan and Nepal. “It’s just for fun,” says Dr Bonnema with a smile, “but it does illustrate the enormous variety within the Brassica family. Some species form turnips, others have curly leaves or remain in flower longer. Our research essentially involves understanding how that variation has come about.” Chinese markets Dr Bonnema is working with Dr Wang Xiaowu of the Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, part of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing. “When I’m in China, we visit the markets to see all kinds of species of Brassica.” The two scientists have set up a highly successful system of collaboration within the Programme Strategic Scientific Alliances (PSA). They recently achieved a major breakthrough when they were the first in the world to map the genome sequence of the genes of Chinese cabbage. “Wang Xiaowu was the main initiator. In China, he is now known
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