Speciation and Diversification of Radish

Abstract

Even though the main cultivation of radish is restricted to East Asia (China, Japan, and Korea), the crop is used worldwide for various purposes. In addition to cultivated radish, wild radish is distributed worldwide as a weed. The species relationship of radish to Brassica plants, the origin of cultivated radish, and the intraspecific classification of radish have all been controversial. However, recent developments in genome analysis of both nuclear and organelle genomesOrganelle genomeas well as the exploitation of transgenic Brassica napus and assessment of dispersal of transgenes have provided new information for phylogenetic studies of Raphanus. In this chapter, recent ideas about inter- and intraspecific divergence based on this information are presented. The morphological diversity of cultivated radish worldwide is also presented.