Editors & Communication

Postal Address

Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) Heidelberg
Biodiversity and Plant Systematics
Im Neuenheimer Feld 345
69120 Heidelberg
Germany

General Inquiries

Coworkers – the BrassiTEN

BrassiBase depends on the expertise and continuous support of various collaborating scientists and partner institutions. Therefore, we have a team of selected Scientific Editors to advise and develop content and knowledge management. In 2024/2025 this team formally joined WorldFloraOnline as Taxonomic Expert Network (TEN), and, accordingly, we named our consortium the BrassiTEN.

Rapid advances in our understanding of phylogenetic relationships among Brassicaceae taxa are driving the development of modern classification schemes that accurately reflect current knowledge. Brassicaceae (Cruciferae) is a relatively large family, currently comprising ca. 4140 species (original data), for which various classification systems have been proposed, including influential historical classifications contributed by de Candolle (1821), Hayek (1911), Schulz (1936), Janchen (1942), Beilstein et al. (2006), and Al-Shehbaz (2012). None of these classification systems and major contributions was able to recognize or even consider the enormous amount of convergent evolution of almost any single morphological character in this family. This is only possible using ´omics approaches and building a reliable backbone phylogeny.

It is only since a few years, that we have convincing phylogenetic hypotheses and phylogenies at hand matching our knowledge on Brassicaceae evolutionary history (e.g. Nikolov et al. 2019, Walden et al. 2020, and Hendriks et al. 2022) and, thereby, having an enormous impact on our taxonomical understaning of this family.

More than 10 years ago we launched BrassiBase as central Brassicaceae knowledge hub serving a DFG priority research programme called „Adaptomics“ and funding a consortium of research groups from Germany, Switzerland and Austria for more than 8 years.

BrassiBase developed gradually not only into a valuable online knowledge tool, but even more important has been the growing network of Brassicaceae researchers contributing to update a species checklist as „backbone“ over the past years. A number of contributions illustrate some aspects and version updates of BrassiBase (Koch et al. 2012, Kiefer et al. 2014, Koch et al. 2017, Kiefer et al. 2025)

The Brassicaceae Taxonomic Expert Network brings together the very active and networked taxonomists, systematists and evolutionary biologists with an interest in or focus on Brassicaceae from around the world. We are group formed based on past and present relationships and we actively seeking new members, particularly for geographic gaps in our membership:

Key Contributors (in alphabetical order)

Selected Literature

• Al-Shehbaz I.A. (2012) A generic and tribal synopsis of the Brassicaceae (Cruciferae). Taxon61(5): 931–954. https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.615002
• Beilstein M.A., Al-Shehbaz I.A., Kellogg E.A. (2006) Brassicaceae phylogeny and trichome evolution. American Journal of Botany 93(4): 607–619. https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.93.4.607
• de Candolle AP (1821) Regni vegetabilis systema naturalle, sive ordines, genera et speciesplantarum secundum methodi naturalis normus digestarum et descriptarum (Vol. 2).Treuttel and Würtz, Paris, 745 pp
• German D.A., Hendriks K.P., Koch M.A., Lens F., Lysak M.A., Bailey C.D., Mummenhoff K., Al-Shehbaz I.A. (2023) An updated classification of the Brassicaceae (Cruciferae). PhytoKeys 220: 127-144. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.220.97724
• Hayek A (1911) Entwurf eines Cruciferensystems auf phylogenetischer Grundlage. Beiheftezum Botanischen Centralblatt 27: 127–335.
• Hendriks K.P., Kiefer C., Al-Shehbaz I.A., Bailey D., Hooft van Huysduynen A., Nikolov L.A., Nauheimer L., Zuntini A.R., German D.A., Franzke A., Koch M.A., Lysak M.A., Toro-Nunez O., Özudogru B., Invernón V.R., Walden N., Maurin O., Hay N.M., Shushkov P., Mandakova T., Schranz M.E., Thulin M., Windham M.D., Resetnik I., Spaniel S., Ly E., Pires J.C., Harkess A., Neuffer B., Vogt R., Bräuchler C., Rainer H., Janssens S.B., Schmull M., Forrest A., Guggisberg A., Zmarzty S., Lepschi B.J., Scarlett N., Stauffer F.W., Schönberger I., Heenan P., Baker W.J., Forest F., Mummenhoff K., Lens F. (2023) Global Brassicaceae phylogeny based on filtering of 1,000-gene dataset. Current Biology 33: 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.08.026
• Janchen E. (1942) Das System der Cruciferen. Österreichische botanische Zeitschrift 91: 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01257342
• Kiefer M., Schmickl R., German D., Lysak M., Al-Shehbaz I.A., Franzke A., Mummenhoff K., Stamatakis A., Koch M.A. (2014) BrassiBase: Introduction to a Novel Knowledge Database on Brassicaceae Evolution. Plant Cell and Physiology 55 (1): e3.
• Koch M.A., German D.A., Kiefer M., and Franzke A. (2017) Database taxonomics as key to modern plant biology. Trends in Plant Sciences 23, 4-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2017.10.005
• Koch M.A., Kiefer M., German D., Al-Shebhaz I.A., Franzke A., Mummenhoff M., Schmickl R. (2012) BrassiBase: Tools and biological resources to study characters and traits in the Brassicaceae – version 1.1. TAXON 61: 1001-1009.
• Schulz OE (1936) Cruciferae. In: Engler A, Harms H (Eds) Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien (Vol. 17B). Verlag von Wilhelm Englemann, Leipzig, 227–658.
• Walden N., German D.A., Wolf E.M., Kiefer M., Rigault P., Huang X-C., Kiefer C., Schmickl R., Franzke A., Neuffer B., Mummenhoff K., and Koch M.A. (2020) Nested whole-genome duplications coincide with diversification and high morphological disparity in Brassicaceae. Nature Communications 11,3795. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17605-7

Acknowledgements

• We are grateful to Alan Elliott of Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh for supporting the establishment of the Brassicaceae TEN.
• DFG for funding
• Dr. Peter Sack

Terms of use

Copyright Status

Usually webpages may be freely distributed and copied. However, it is requested that in any subsequent use of this work, BrassiBase be given appropriate acknowledgment and cited as:

• Koch MA, Kiefer M, German DA, Al-Shehbaz IA, Franzke A, Mummenhoff K, Schmickl R. 2012. BrassiBase: Tools and biological resources to study characters and traits in the Brassicaceae – version 1.1 TAXON 61(5): 1001-1009.
• Kiefer M, Schmickl R, German DA, Lysak M, Al-Shehbaz IA, Franzke A, Mummenhoff K, Stamatakis A, Koch MA. 2014. BrassiBase: Introduction to a novel database on Brassicaceae evolution. Plant Cell Physiol., 55(1): e3, doi:10.1093/pcp/pct158.
• Koch MA, German DA, Kiefer M, Franzke A. 2018. Database taxonomics as key to modern plant biology. Trends Plant Sci. 23(1): 4–6. DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2017.10.005
• Kiefer M, German D, Kiefer, C, Hendriks KP, Franzke A, Schmickl R, BrassiTEN, Walden N, Koch MA. 2025. Capacity building in crucifer research – from BrassiBase to a taxonomic expert network (BrassiTEN). Annals of Botany (under review).

Releases and History

• The first release of BrassiBase (version 1.1, June 2012) has been announced in a Special Issue of Taxon (Vol. 61, 2012), dedicated to Brassicaceae (= Cruciferae) and Brassicales (= Capparales) systematics and taxonomy. This earlier version of the database introduced the underlying taxonomic framework.
• The second release (version 1.1.9, August 2013) build on the taxonomic content of version 1.1, incorporated taxonomic information into a “Taxonomy Tool” and implemented two major new features, the “Phylogenetic Placement” and the “Cytogenetics Tool”.
• The third release (version 1.2, August 2017) was based on a completely revised species checklist serving as “taxonomic backbone”, an interactive determination key and a new “Morphology Tool” has been allowing to explore the morphological diversity of the Brassicaceae family.
• The fourth (June 2020) release does not only provide an updated checklist (v1.3) but also a literature tool, allowing to search for relevant literature used to create the taxonomic and phylogenetic backbone.
• With May 2025 a completely re-programmed BrassiBase version 2.1 has been launched and builds on the most recent Brassicaceae species checklist version 1.7. This species check-list is now regularly updated and mirrowed with WorldFloraOnline (WFO).
• We kindly ask to cite the paper(s) given in the references section below whenever you extract respective information or use material obtained from BrassiBase.

References

• Koch MA, Kiefer M, German DA, Al-Shehbaz IA, Franzke A, Mummenhoff K, Schmickl R. 2012. BrassiBase: Tools and biological resources to study characters and traits in the Brassicaceae – version 1.1 TAXON 61(5): 1001-1009.
• Kiefer M, Schmickl R, German DA, Lysak M, Al-Shehbaz IA, Franzke A, Mummenhoff K, Stamatakis A, Koch MA. 2014. BrassiBase: Introdcution to a novel database on Brassicaceae evolution. Plant Cell Physiol., 55(1): e3, doi:10.1093/pcp/pct158.
• Koch MA, German DA, Kiefer M, Franzke A. 2018. Database taxonomics as key to modern plant biology. Trends Plant Sci. 23(1): 4–6. DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2017.10.005
• Kiefer M, German D, Kiefer, C, Hendriks KP, Franzke A, Schmickl R, BrassiTEN, Walden N, Koch MA. 2025. Capacity building in crucifer research – from BrassiBase to a taxonomic expert network (BrassiTEN). Annals of Botany (under review).