Abstract
Rapid cycling Brassica rapa, also known as Wisconsin Fast Plants, are a widely used organism in both K-12 and college science education. They are an excellent system for genetics laboratory instruction because it is very easy to conduct genetic crosses with this organism, there are numerous seed stocks with variation in both Mendelian and quantitative traits, they have a short generation time, and there is a wealth of educational materials for instructors using them. Their main deficiency for genetics education is that none of the genetic variation in RCBr has yet been characterized at the molecular level. Here we present the first molecular characterization of a gene responsible for a trait in Fast Plants. The trait under study is purple/nonpurple variation due to the anthocyaninless locus, which is one of the Mendelian traits most frequently used for genetics education with this organism. We present evidence that the DFR gene, which encodes dihyroflavonol 4-reductase, is the candidate gene for the anthocyaninless (ANL) locus in RCBr. DFR shows complete linkage with ANL in genetic crosses with a total of 948 informative chromosomes, and strains with the recessive nonpurple phenotype have a transposon-related insertion in the DFR which is predicted to disrupt gene function.