Interspecific crosses in the genus lycopersicum

The agene of the corky root disease of Dutch glasshouse tomatoes is a non-sporulating fungus of the group Mycelia sterilia. The breeding programme for corky root resistance is based on the resistance derived from Lycopersicum glandulosum. To test the best way of backcrossing we made backcrosses in all possible combinations between tomato, triploid F ₁ hybrid (tomato × Lycopersicum glandulosum) and Lycopersicum glandulosum. Our experiments showed that the shortest way from the wild resistant Lycopersicum back to the commercial type of the tomato possessing the desired resistance was backcrossing the F ₁ triploid hybrid to Lycopersicum glandulosum.     

Successful hybridization of non-tuberous Solanum etuberosum Lind. and tuberbearing S. pinnatisectum Dun.

The results of extensive crosses between the non-tuberous species Solanum brevidens and S. etuberosum on the one hand and ten tuber-bearing Solanum species on the other are presented. Three crosses gave rise to viable progeny. Two progenies consisted of diploid plants only of the strictly self-incompatible species of the mother parent. One cross, viz. S. etuberosum × S. pinnatisectum, produced highly vigorous but fully male sterile F₁ hybrids.It is suggested that this hybrid together with those between the tomato, Lycopersicon esculentum, and S, pennellii and S. lycopersicoides constitute piers of a bridge between tomato and potato species which in the future might enable gene transfer between these two crops via their wild relatives. However, such idea has to be treated with all proper reserve.The production of this new hybrid is the first step in making accessible to potato breeding the valuable genes which have been detected in S. brevidens and S. etuberosum, viz. the genes for high resistance to frost, leafroll and Y-virus.     

Reproductive Behavior of Hexaploid/Diploid Wheat Hybrids 1

The bottleneck restricting introgression of useful genes directly from diploid into hexaploid wheats is the low number of BC₁F₁ seeds obtained. In crosses between hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum L.; AABBDD) and Aegilops squarrosa L. (DD) or T. urartu Thum. (AA), this bottleneck may be overcome simply by pollinating a sufficient number of F₁ spikes. However, hybrids between hexaploid wheat cultivars (T. aestivum) and T. monococcum L. (AA) generally are highly female-sterile, often having no pistils. One T. monococcum accession, PI 355520, when crossed with T. aestivum, produced hybrids with female fertility in the same range as that of T. aestivum/A. squarrosa or T. aestivum/T. urartu hybrids, ca. 0.5 to 1.0 backcross seed per spike. We found that female fertility was controlled by two duplicate genes in PI 355520, and that this accession can be used as a bridging parent to introgress genes from other T. monococcum accessions into hexaploid wheat. Pairing of homologous chromosomes was less frequent and weaker in such crosses than in T. aestivum/A. squarrosa crosses, but homoeologous bivalents occurred at a rate of almost 0.5 II per cell. Restitution division was detected in crosses involving all three diploid species and was confirmed cytologically in crosses with PI 355520. Chromosome numbers of BC₁F₁ plants ranged from 35 to 67; plants with 49 or more chromosomes occurred at frequencies of 0.09 to 0.21 among progeny of A. squarrosa and T. urartu and 0.29 in progeny of T. aestivum/T. monococcum crosses involving PI 355520. These results are consistent with those of previous studies, demonstrating the potential of direct Hexaploid/diploid crosses for rapidly introgressing useful genes into Hexaploid wheat with minimum disturbance of the background genotype.     

Hybridization of two diploid Vaccinium section Cyanococcus species with diploid Vaccinium arboreum in section Batodendron

Several characteristics from sparkleberry (V. arboreum) would be useful if transferred to highbush blueberry cultivars, but to date all direct crosses have failed. The purpose of this research was to see whether crosses of diploid V. darrowii and diploid V. fuscatum (both section Cyanococcus) with diploid V. arboreum (section Batodendron) could be made and to assess the possibility of transferring traits from V. arboreum into cultivated blueberries of section Cyanococcus. Many crosses were successful and easy to make. Crosses were more productive when V. arboreum was the pollen parent, but some hybrids were also obtained with V. arboreum as seed parent. Pollen stainability of F₁ (V. darrowii × V. arboreum) hybrids was low, ranging from 0.9 to 23.7%. Numerous meiotic abnormalities were found in the F₁ hybrids. These led to a high percentage of incomplete and unstained tetrads and probably to the production of unreduced gametes.     

Trials to overcome the incompatibility of crosses between Lycopersicum esculentum and Lycopersicum glandulosum by repeated grafting

In breeding tomatoes for resistance to Corky root Lycopersicum glandulosum is used as a resistant parent. Crosses of tomato with L. glandulosum are difficult to effect because of the incompatibility of the partners. To overcome this incompatibility the approach method was applied beside the conventional crosses.Repeated reciprocal grafting of tomato onto L. glandulosum and also L. glandulosum on tomato did not increase the number of effected matings. The statement that by repeated grafting the characters of the scion change under the influence of the stock could not be confirmed.     

Inheritance of shelf life and other quality traits of tomato fruit estimated from F<Subscript>1</Subscript>’s,F<Subscript>2</Subscript>’s and backcross generations derived from standard cultivar, <Emphasis Type="Italic">nor</Emphasis> homozygote and wild cherry tomato

A tomato cultivar with high quality fruit and a long shelf life is a main goal in tomato breeding and it would be achieved using wild germplasm. The objective of this work was to explore the inheritance for fruit quality traits, especially fruit shelf life, in three tomato crosses using a standard Argentinean cultivar (Ca, cv ‘Caimanta’), a ripening mutant (nor, homozygous for the nor gene) of Solanum lycopersicum, and a wild cherry type (Ce, LA1385 of S. lycopersicum var. cerasiforme). The wild parent had a shorter fruit shelf life than the mutant genotype but higher than Ca. When the Ce genotype was analyzed in hybrid combination, the F₁ (Ca×Ce) was similar to the wild genotype for shelf life whereas the F₁ (nor × Ce) had a longer shelf life. Both F₁ crosses and backcrosses to the cherry type genotype had significantly lower fruit weight than the cultivated genotypes but higher than the cherry type parent. In the F₂ analysis, it was found that the inheritance underlying quality traits is complex since non allelic interactions were detected. A significant additive genetic variance was found for fruit shelf life as well as for other fruit quality traits in each cross. The genetic parameters analyzed by mean values and variances in parental, F₁ and F₂ and backcross generations indicated that the cross between the normal ripening cultivar and LA1385 of S. lycopersicum var. cerasiforme offers the best possibility to obtain long shelf life tomato genotypes with good fruit quality.     

Interspecific hybridization in sexual diploid Allium senescens var. minor× apomictic tetraploid A. nutans and sexual diploid A. senescens var. minor× apomictic hexaploid A. senescens

Fourteen interspecific hybrids in sexual diploid Allium senescens var. minor× apomictic tetraploid Allium nutans L. crosses, and eight interspecific hybrids in sexual diploid A. senescens var. minor× apomictic hexaploid A. senescens L. crosses were produced. The number of chromosomes was 2n= 24 in interspecific hybrids of diploid × tetraploid, and 2n= 32 in diploid × hexaploid crosses. Triploid and tetraploid interspecific hybrids showed intermediate parental morphological characteristics. Tetraploid interspecific hybrids of A. senescens var. minor×A. senescens crosses formed two groups based on leaf colour and leaf width. Seeds were formed in 11 out of 14 triploid interspecific hybrids under natural conditions. In cytological observations of parthenogenesis, three out of 12 triploid interspecific hybrids and five out of eight interspecific tetraploid hybrids were observed. Parthenogenesis ranged from 26.0% to 86.0% in five tetraploid interspecific hybrids. Non-parthenogenesis to parthenogenesis segregated in a 3:5 ratio in A. senescens var. minor×A. senescens crosses.     

Reproductive behaviour and broomrape resistance in interspecific hybrids of sunflower

Interspecific hybrids and backcross generations between the wild perennial species Helianthus resinosus, Helianthus paucifiorus, Helianthus laevigatus, Helianthus nuttallii ssp. nuttallii T. & G. and Helianthus giganteus, resistant to broomrape (Orobanche cernua) and susceptible inbred lines were obtained to study crossability to cultivated sunflower and the transmission and expression of resistance to this parasitic weed. Conventional crosses with all the species tested were successful except for the crosses with diploid H. giganteus, for which embryo rescue techniques were needed to overcome hybrid incompatibility. Pollen viability and seed set were highest for F₁ hybrids with hexaploid species and lowest for those with the diploid H. giganteus. We evaluated F₁, BC₁F₁, some BC₂F₁ plants and the wild and cultivated parents. The wild species and interspecific hybrids were resistant to broomrape infection except for H. nuttallii, which showed segregation, indicating that the resistance is dominant. The crossability and resistance of F₁, and back-cross generations of species with different ploidy levels indicate that the transfer of broomrape resistance to cultivated sunflower is feasible.     

Inheritance of resistance to fruit rot (Phytophthora parasiticaDast.) in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.)

Summary Fruit rot disease caused by Phytophthora parasiticaDast. is a limiting factor in tomato production in Himachal Pradesh. 30 to 60 per cent fruits are damaged by this disease. Crosses were made between EC 54725 (Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium), a small tyuited type, resistant to fruit rot and four highly susceptible tomato commercial cultivars (Gola, Sioux, S12, and Lalmani). Studies of F₁'s, F₂'s and back crosses indicated that EC 54725 carries a dominant gene imparting resistance to fruit rot.     

Progenies of allotriploids of Oriental × Asiatic lilies (Lilium) examined by GISH analysis

With the aim of utilizing allotriploid (2n = 3x = 36) lily hybrids (Lilium) in introgression breeding, different types of crosses were made. First, using diploid Asiatic lilies (2n = 2x = 24), reciprocal crosses (3x − 2x and 2x − 3x) were made with allotriploid hybrids (AOA) obtained by backcrosses of F₁ Oriental × Asiatic hybrids (OA) to Asiatic cultivars (A). Secondly, the AOA allotriploids were crossed with allotetraploid (OAOA, 2n = 4x = 48), in 3x − 4x combination. Finally, the AOA allotriploids where crossed to 2n gamete producer F₁ OA hybrids (3x − 2x (2n)). Two types of triploids were used as parents in the different types of crosses, derived from: (a) mitotic polyploidization and (b) sexual polyploidization. Ploidy level of the progeny was determined by estimating the DNA values through flowcytometry as well as chromosome counting. The aneuploid progeny plants from 3x − 2x and reciprocal crosses had approximate diploid levels and in 3x − 4x crosses and 3x − 2x (2n) the progeny had approximate tetraploid levels. Balanced euploid gametes (x, 2x and 3x) were formed in the AOA genotypes. Recombinant chromosomes were found in the progenies of all crosses, except in the case of 2x − 3x crosses through genomic in situ hybridization (GISH) analyses. Recombinant chromosomes occurred in the F₁ OA hybrid when the triploid AOA hybrid was derived through sexual polyploidization, but not through mitotic polyploidization with two exceptions. Those recombinant chromosomes were transmitted to the progenies in variable frequencies.     

Genetics of the viability of pollen grain produced at low temperatures inLycopersicon Mill.

Summary The different viabilities of pollen produced at low temperatures in intra- and inter-specific crosses of tomato were studied. Cultivars Red Top, Moneymaker, and Marroqui were crossed with cultivar E-15 and these four cultivars were hybridized with lines of the wild speciesL. pimpinellifolium PE-13,L. parviflorum PE-52,L. pennellii PE-47, andL. hirsutum PE-37 and PE-41. A six-generation family of the Moneymaker x PE-47 cross was obtained to carry out a more detailed genetical study of pollen grain viability at low temperatures. Pollen grain viability was evaluated during the winter via acetocarmine staining. When the parents were compared with their F₁, the intra-specific tomato crosses showed dominance to better-quality pollen, theL. esculentum x L. pimpinellifolium inter-specific crosses showed positive heterosis, while the crosses ofL. esculentum with the tolerant speciesL. pennellii andL. hirsutum showed intermediate inheritance. However, in theL. esculentum x L. pennellii family, the dominance and the non-allelic interactions (homozygosis x homozygosis) were the most important factors, so that dominance to better viability at low temperatures appeared to be the general mode of inheritance. Genetical control of pollen grain viability at low temperatures seemed to be polygenetic.     

The controlled introgression of Festuca arundinacea genes into Lolium multiflorum

Summary Using phosphoglucoisomerase (PGI/2) as a genetic marker, it has been shown to be possible to transfer genes from Festuca arundinacea into diploid Lolium multiflorum using the pentaploid hybrid L. multiflorum (4x) x F. arundinacea (6x). The pentaploid hybrid was sufficiently fertile to be used in reciprocal crosses with diploid. L. multiflorum. When used as the male parent, only two backcross generations were then required to reconstitute the diploid genotype. Intergeneric recombinants including a F. arundinacea PGI/2 allele were found among the diploid BC₂. Cytological data indicates that although the majority of chromosome associations involve only homologous Lolium chromosomes, associations involving Lolium and Festuca chromosomes also occur.Interpollinating the pentaploid hybrids prior to commencing a backcrossing programme increases the number of cycles of recombination and improves the chance of recovering intergeneric recombinants. The crossing programme described is proposed to be an effective method of introducing F. arundinacea genes into L. multiflorum.     

Inheritance of tomato leaf curl virus resistance in Lycopersicon hirsutum f. glabratum

Summary Inheritance of resistance to tomato leaf curl virus (TLCV) was studied in the progenies derived from interspecific crosses between TLCV resistant Lycopersicon hirsutum f. glabratum line B 6013 and five susceptible cultivars (HS 101, HS 102, HS 110, Pusa Ruby and Punjab Chhuhara) of L. esculentum. P₁, P₂, F₁, F₂, B₁ and B₂ progenies of the five crosses were artificially inoculated with local strains of TLCV by means of the vector whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Genn.). and the disease reaction was studied in all the crosses. Reaction of parents, F₁, F₂ and backcrosses suggests that resistance derived from L. hirsutum f. glabratum B 6013 is based on two epistatic genes, one from the wild parent and one from the cultivated one, resulting in a 13:3 segragation in the F₂.     

The production of alien monosomic additions in Beta vulgaris as a source for the introgression of resistance to beet root nematode (Heterodera schachtii) from Beta species of the section Patellares

Summary Experiments were carried out for adding the chromosome carrying resistance to beet root nematode (Heterodera schachtii) from the wild Beta species of the section Patellares (B. procumbens, B. webbiana and B. patellaris) to the genome of B. vulgaris. Preliminary experiments indicated that crosses between the wild species and B. vulgaris cultivars of the mangold type yielded on average more viable F₁ hybrids than crosses with sugar and fodderbeet. However, crossability varied strongly between individual parental combinations. It was concluded that most types of B. vulgaris can be hybridized with the wild species of the section Patellares if a sufficient number of pair-crosses is made. Crosses between diploid cultivars or species of the section Vulgares and diploid wild species of the section Patellares yielded many hybrids which, however, were highly sterile. From crosses between tetraploid B. vulgaris and the wild species a great number of viable allotriploid and allotetraploid hybrids was obtained. In the backcross progenies of allotriploid hybrids 26% alien monosomic additions occurred, of which 4.1% carried the resistance bearing chromosome of B. procumbens or B. patellaris. The programme will be continued by sereening progenies of the resistant monosomic addition plants for the occurrence of resistant disomic introgression products.     

Polyploidy and sexual polyploidization in the genus Vaccinium

Genus Vaccinium,consisting of blueberries, cranberries, lingonberries and many related wild species, includes diploid, tetraploid, and hexaploid species. Most evidence indicates that the tetraploid species are autotetraploids, with non-preferential bivalent chromosome pairing. Although homoploid interspecific crosses usually produce numerous fertile hybrids if the parents are from the same section of the genus, inter sectional crosses at the diploid level normally produce no seedlings, weak seedlings, or seedlings that are very low in fertility. There is a strong but not complete triploid block within Vaccinium. Even with insections, tetraploid × diploid (and the reciprocal) crosses normally give only a few tetraploid and a few triploid hybrids. Hexaploid × diploid crosses within sections are very hard to make, and the few hybrids that have been obtained are pentaploid. The frequency of 2n gametes varies,both among genotypes within species and among species. Vaccinium pollen is normally shed in tetrads, and the frequency of large pollen grains shed in dyads can be used to estimate 2n gamete frequency. Cultivated blueberries occur at both the tetraploid and the hexaploid levels, and there are important genetic resources in the diploids. Unreduced gamete production has permitted transfer of genetic material from the diploid to the tetraploid level and from the diploids and tetraploids to the hexaploid level via triploid hybrids. Intersectional crosses can occasionally produce tetraploid Vaccinium hybrids that appear to behave as amphidiploids and have medium to high fertility. CommercialVaccinium cultivars are normally propagated by cuttings. Intersectional hybridization, chromosome doubling, and asexual propagation could permit the production of novel hybrid combinations with value as ornamentals or in fruit production. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A male-fertile Lycopersicon esculentum × Solanum lycopersicoides hybrid enables direct backcrossing to tomato at the diploid level

Solanum lycopersicoides Dun. is a wild nightshade native to Chile and Peru that possesses many traits of potential interest to tomato breeders, including environmental stress tolerance, resistances to disease and insect pests, and certain fruit quality characteristics. Sexual and somatic hybrids with the cultivated tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) are readily obtained, yet have a strong tendency towards male-sterility combined with unilateral incompatibility, barriers that have deterred breeding efforts in the past. We report herein the synthesis of a partially male-fertile F₁ hybrid by sexual crosses between tomato and a recently collected population of S. lycopersicoides. Over 280 BC₁ plants were obtained by directed backcrossing to tomato at the diploid level, of which 58 were sufficiently fertile to permit selfing or additional backcrosses. The transmission of S. lycopersicoides genetic markers into a uniform L. esculentum background was confirmed with 24 isozyme or morphological loci on 11 of the 12 alien chromosomes. Potentially useful tolerance to gray mold (Botrytis cinerea) was demonstrated by inoculation of stem cuttings with mycelial plugs: at 6 days post-inoculation, the intergeneric hybrid showed little evidence of disease progression and the length of stem lesions averaged only one third that of susceptible controls. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV) resistance in tomato derived from Lycopersicon chilense Dun. LA 1938

Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) resistance wasidentified in Y118 (Fla 925-2), an F₁BC₁S₆ tomato line(Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.), derived from a crosswith L. chilense Dun. (LA 1938). This line waspreviously selected for tomato mottle virus (ToMoV)resistance in Florida. Progeny from crosses betweenFla 925-2 and three different TSWV susceptible L.esculentum parents were used in TSWV resistancestudies. A total of 75 F₁ and 596 F₂ plants from allthree crosses were screened for TSWV resistance. ForF₂ plants free of TSWV symptoms, evaluations were madeusing enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). TenF₃ populations used for further greenhouse and fieldscreenings were selected from F₂ plants found to befree of the virus using visual and ELISA criteria ateach evaluation. One F₁ and four F₃ lines werestudied under field conditions (Stellenbosch, SouthAfrica) in which 100% of the `Flora-Dade' susceptiblecontrols were severely infected with TSWV. Theresults of the field study clearly establish that TSWVfield resistance is present in the Fla 925-2 (Y118)derived lines. Studies conducted on these linesrevealed that this resistance has the distinctcharacteristic of often `recovering' from initiallyhigh levels of virus titer in the tissue to levelsbelow detection with ELISA.     

A biosystematic study of the origin of the cultivated diploid potato,Solanum x Ajanhuiri Juz. et Buk.

Summary The origin and nature of the diploid cultivated potato species S. ajanhuiri Juz. et Buk. was studied. Several lines of evidence indicate that S. ajanhuiri might be derived from natural crosses between primitive cultivars of the diploid species S. stenotomum and the wild species S. megistacrolobum. Morphological comparisons were made between S. stenotomum x S. megistacrolobum F₁ hybrids and naturally occurring S. ajanhuiri to investigate this hypothesis. Comparisons were also made between S. ajanhuiri x S. stenotomum crosses and the F₂ generation of the first-mentioned cross.Crosses between the two major groups of S. ajanhuiri cultivars, Ajawiri and Yari, showed not only genetic breakdown but also a wide range of phenotypic variation similar to those of artificial F₂ families of S. stenotomum x S. megistacrolobum. Furthermore, there was strong evidence showing that the Yari group of S. ajanhuiri could almost certainly be an F₁ S. stenotomum x S. megistacrolobum hybrid, whereas the Ajawiri group could be a backcross of an F₁ hybrid to S. stenotomum. These results added further support to the hypothesis of a hybrid origin of S. ajanhuiri, as well as indicating its putative parents. It is suggested that this hybridogenic taxon be retained at the species level under the name Solanum x ajanhuiri.     

Cytological investigation of hybrid varieties of Begonia semperflorens

The production of Begonia semperflorens varieties has recently concentrated on the F₁ types, because of their free-flowering habit, uniformity and reduced sensitivity to adverse conditions. As many of the F₁ varieties are sterile, it was supposed that a differential ploidy in the species was present. The following is a study of the varietal development of the species since its introduction in 1828 and of the chromosome numbers of the different varieties. In a series of crosses it was proved that the triploids resulted from tetraploid x diploid crosses, which are sterile. At the same time it could be observed that the heterosis effect, which is most manifest in the triploids, results in a better response to adverse conditions. The inheritance of dwarfness, which is an important feature of the species, was studied.     

The transfer of triazine resistance from Brassica napus L. to B. oleracea L. III. First backcross to parental species

Summary Atrazine resistant Brassica napus × B. oleracea F₁ hybrids were backcrossed to both parental species. The backcrosses to B. napus produced seeds in both directions but results were much better when the F₁ hybrid was the pollen parent. Backcrosses to B. oleracea failed completely but BC₁s were rescued by embryo culture both from a tetraploid hybrid (2n = 4x = 37; A₁C₁CC) and sesquidiploid hybrids (2n = 3x = 8; A₁C₁C). Progeny of crosses between the tetraploid hybrid and B. oleracea had between 25 and 28 chromosomes. That of crosses between the sesquidiploid hybrid and B. oleracea had between 21 and 27. A few plants that had chromosome counts outside the expected range may have originated from either diploid parthenogenesis, unreduced gametes or spontaneous chromosome doubling during in vitro culture. Pollen stainability of the BC₁s ranged from 0% to 91.5%. All the BC₁s to B. oleracea were resistant to atrazine.