Question

Name two varieties of wild cabbage what is the molecular progenies? How it is useful in artificial selection?

Answer 1

Cabbage is a different story. Per capita consumption of it peaked way back in the 1920s, when the average American ate 22 pounds of it per year. Nowadays, we eat about eight pounds, most of it disguised as cole slaw or sauerkraut.

This makes it pretty interesting that kale and cabbage — along with broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, collard greens, and kohlrabi, and several other vegetables — all come from the exact same plant species: Brassica oleracea.

 Ancient Greece and Rome, people began growing the plant in their gardens. To maximize the amount of food they got from it, they preferentially planted seeds from plants that grew more leaves, and after many generations, this sort of artificial selection produced a leafy version of wild mustard that looked more like modern-day kale or collard greens.

Later (sometime after the year 1600), farmers selected for variants of the plant that produced enlarged leaf buds in particular. After many generations, this led to plants with huge heads of tightly rolled leaves — plants that we would call cabbage.