Student Name Systematic and Conservation Values of Brassicaceae

Systematics and conservation values of Brassicaceae

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Abstract

The systematics and conservation values were done through a literature review of the
Brassicaceae family. The review was based on phylogeny, taxonomy, conservation status,
phytochemistry, and evolutionary status. The family which was originally known as
Cruciferae has about 365 genus and 3200 species according to the angiosperm phylogeny
group. The most common genus of this family is Brassica and the most grown species of this
genus are Brassica rapa and Brassica olelaracea which have edible leaves, roots, stems, and
seeds. Theses Brassica plants also have phytochemicals such as Sulphur containing
compounds that play a role as anticancer, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents.
Brassicaceae family is distributed throughout the world and majorly found in the north
temperature and Mediterranean regions. Molecular systematics which applies information
from DNA has been used to determine the evolutionary relationship which is applied to the
classification of this family.

Introduction

Brassicaceae is a family of the flowering plants (angiosperms) that was originally known as
Cruciferae and has about 365 genus and 3200 accepted species (Cooper et al. 2010). These
plants are known for having four petals and six stamens, capsule, and a pungent watery sap.
These plants are distributed in the entire world and majorly found in north temperature and
Mediterranean regions where it shows high conservation status and low conservation status in
the Sahara-Arabian region.

There are many economical uses including providing vegetables, fats, cattle feed, and fodder
as well as medicines. The plants also produce phytochemicals such as glucosolinates which
play a role as anticancer agents. These phytochemicals have been used for classification as
well as evolutionary studies. These compounds include glucosinolates, fatty acids, sterols and

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Student Name Systematic and Conservation Values of Brassicaceae

proteins stored in seeds. The main objective of this study is to provide the systematic and
conservation values of family Brassicaceae.

Phylogeny

Arabidopsis thaliana is the most essential species in the Brassicaceae family. This species
has been crucial in experimental biology and studies of its sequence’s genome have led to a
better understanding of botany. Several studies on morphology diversity and distribution have
been by different authors that have led present classification of family Brassicaceae
(Couvreur et al. 2010). The pioneers for classification of the Brasiccadiaeae family are Hayek
1911 who was followed in 1936 by Schulz then in 1942 Janchen followed. They all believed
in the new world origin of the Brassicaceae family using a basal mustard tribe Cleomoidae
(Beilstein et al. 2010). Hayek classification used a limited number of characters some of
these are current subjects to convergence evolution and as a result, many subdivisions of this
family are artificial and monophyletic by molecular reviews.

They were followed by authors from the German school who based their beliefs in the old-
world family through tribe Hesperidae in 1984, Al-shehbaz 2003 and then Warwick in the
year 2006 (Al-shehbaz 2012). Schulz classification in 1936 continued to be the most used in
the current taxonomy. He placed the taxa various tribes such as Sisymbreae, Lepidiae,
Euclidiae and Arabidiae. However molecular examination done by Al-shehbaz in 2003
showed that the two genera should have been placed in the same clade because they were
closely related. Most of the phylogenetic studies in the Brassicaceae family have applied the
use of restriction fragment length polymorphism and amplification fragment length
polymorphism.

The molecular studies were conducted through the comparative sequence data and DNA
regions of nucleus and chloroplast such as ndhF gene were analysed. These studies showed
that indicated that many taxa had similarities but the morphology of the fruit and seed
embryo were different. These differences led to genetic delimitations and obscured the
phylogenetic relationships. These studies provided incomplete information and Brassicaceae
was divided into two unresolved groups. This lack of a resolution was as a result of the
markers that were analysed and therefore did not provide good support for the clades.

Table 1: List of Genera discovered by several authors in the family Brassicaceae

(Couvreur et al. 2010)

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Student Name Systematic and Conservation Values of Brassicaceae

Authors Total Genera Synonynms Added Genera

Hayek (1911) 231 11 34
Schulz (1942) 351 21 141
Authors (1984) 369 88 106
Al-shehbaz and Appel (2003) 337 59 27
Warwick et al (2006) 338 20 21

Taxonomy

In 1753 carl Linnaeus regarded Brassicaceae as a natural group. Later several scientists
discovered three families these were cleomaceae, Brassicaceae and capparales. Angiosperm
phylogeny group system then merged cleomaceae and Brassicaceae. The current
classification of the Brassicaceae family is based on DNA analysis carried out in 2012. This
is because convergent evolution made morphological comparison ineffective for
classification, molecular genetic studies were then adopted in the current taxonomy.

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A Tree Showing Current Relationship Between The families (Adapted from The APG
System)

         
Family Resedaceae
         
  Family
 
Gyrostemonaceae 
  Family
core Brassicales
 
Pentadiplandraceae
   
Family Tovariaceae 
   
   
Family Capparaceae 
   
   
Family Cleomaceae 
   
 
family Brassicaceae
 
 
Family Emblingiciae 

Phytochemistry

Genus Brassica is one of the most important in the Brassicaceae family and most of its
species provide nutritional, economic and pharmaceutical value. Several studies have been
done on the phytochemical analysis of Brassica in the medical field (Sakai et al. 2010). These
phytochemicals act as anticancer and antioxidant agents and are used in the defence against
human diseases. These studies have helped in identifying the phytochemical composition in
different species in the family that has helped classification. The phytochemical contents of
these plants are important in identifying different species and genera (Winde and Wittstock
2011). These compounds are mostly found in the edible parts of the plant such as leaves,
roots, and seeds.

The most common of these compounds are flavonoids, phenolics, glucosinolates, and
ascorbic acid. For example, in the species Brassica oleracea subspecies Capitata F. Alb

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contains ethanol, methanol, and acetone in its leaves. These contents have essential
antioxidant activities. Brassica oleracea subspecies Italica contains ethanol, acetone, and
methanol in its flowers. These phytochemical compounds are useful antidiabetic,
antiproliferative and neuroprotective agents. Another example is species Brassica napus
subspecies Napobrassica contains ethanol in the roots and leaves and this component is useful
in inhibiting lipid peroxidation.

Conservational Status

Brassicaceae family has several species that have conservational status either individually, in
a population or member of a risked ecological community at commonwealth, New South
Wales or internationally (Paterson et al. 2010). In New South Wales the humidity is relatively
high and thus provides conditions for the growth of a variety of plants including
Brassicaceae. The occurrence and distribution in the New South Wales are 160 species and a
variety of the species have been naturalized and introduced in all the Australian States. Many
of these species are cultivated for food and they include Brassica oleracea. The International
Union for Conservation of Nature has registered the Brassica family under the Red list
threatened species. These species have been marked as critically endangered and their
number stands at 132 species with 18.2% of these being threatened. According to the
Australian encyclopedia, there are about 40 species of the Brassicaceae family in the
commonwealth. The main threatening processes for the plants in this family are heavy metal
contamination of the soil, pests such as insects and their ornamental use posses a threat to
their conservation status (Warwick et al. 2010).

Conclusion

Brassicaceae is an essential family of the plant kingdom that has species that provide several
economic benefits. It provides vegetables including cabbage, broccoli, turnip, and radish. It
has been noted that molecular studies played a great role in providing systematics,
evolutionary history, classification and phytochemistry of the family. Molecular studies based

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Student Name Systematic and Conservation Values of Brassicaceae

on the ndhF gene as well as an examination of morphology led to the discovery of the new
tribes in the Brassicaceae family. For each tribe that was discovered morphology, taxa and
centers of distribution were assigned. Arabidopsis thaliana has been a crucial model in the
molecular studies and has been applied in embryology, gene evolution and expression
because of its low chromosome number (Faweet and Van de Peer 2010). Molecular genetics
applying information from DNA has been used over the years to help in understanding the
phylogeny and classification of the Brassicaceae family (Birchler and Veitia 2010).

Acknowledgement

I would like to acknowledge the work of Joe Miller and Pamela S. Soltis in this research. I
also thank Yi-Zhen Xi and Zhao-Chen Kong for describing pollen grains. I would also like to
thank the following authors: Al-Shehbaz I.A, Warwick S.I, Schulz O.E and Hayek A. for
their contribution to taxonomy and phylogenetic studies of the Brassicaceae family.

References

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vol. 61 (pg. 931-954

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Warwick SI, Mummenhoff K, Sauder C, Koch MA, Al-Shehbaz IA. Closing the gaps:
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