Evaluating the utility of Arabidopsis thaliana as a model for understanding heterosis in hybrid crops |
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Authors: | David Stokes Colin Morgan Carmel O’Neill Ian Bancroft |
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Institution: | (1) John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Colney, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK |
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Abstract: | Despite the phenomenon of heterosis having been used to improve crop productivity for almost a century, there is little understanding
of the molecular mechanisms involved. Heterosis has been described recently in the widely used plant model Arabidopsis thaliana. To assess the opportunity afforded by this system, we have developed, through pollination to a male sterile female parent
(Ler ms1), a range of hybrids of A. thaliana accessions. We tested this method of hybrid production in A. thaliana by comparing seed produced by natural pollination and hand pollination of emasculated plants. Our results demonstrate that
using male sterile lines, which more closely represent methods used for hybrid crop production, circumvents the problems associated
with the analysis of hybrids produced from emasculated plants. We identified hybrid combinations exhibiting mid-parent heterosis
for vegetative fresh weight ranging from −9 to 103% and characterised heterosis in the reciprocal hybrids of one strongly
heterotic combination. We found no evidence of a relationship between the extent of genetic relatedness of A. thaliana accessions and the strength of heterosis exhibited by their hybrids.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. |
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Keywords: | Heterosis Hybrid vigour Arabidopsis Seed size Reciprocal effects Genetic distance |
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