Androgenesis from a Lolium multiflorum × Festuca arundinacea hybrid to generate extreme variation for freezing-tolerance |
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Authors: | A-G Zare M W Humphreys W J Rogers H A Collin |
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Institution: | Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Ministry of Jahad-e-Sazndegi, PO Box 13185-116, Tehran, Iran;Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, Plas Gogerddan, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY23 3EB, UK;Facultad de Agronomia, Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Au. Intendente Giraut a/n.-c.c 178(7300), Azul, Buenos Aires, Argentina;Department of Genetics and Microbiology, University of Liverpool, PO Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX, UK. |
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Abstract: | New opportunities for plant breeding using androgenesis in Lolium × Festuca hybrids have been identified. Plants derived by anther culture from a Lolium multiflorum × Festuca arundinacea (5x) hybrid were screened for freezing-tolerance, and their post-freezing recovery compared. The androgenic population showed extreme diversity in freezing-tolerance. While the majority of androgenic plants had inferior freezing-tolerance compared with the freezing-sensitive L. multiflorum parent, 6% of the population were more freezing resistant than the freezing-tolerant Festuca parent. Novel Lolium and Festuca gene combinations resulting from rare meiotic events were recovered within the androgenic population. The two most freezing-tolerant androgenic plants carried virtually the entire F. pratensis subgenome of F. arundinacea. F. pratensis is known to carry genes for freezing-tolerance and would be expected to be the primary source of genes governing this trait within the F. arundinacea genome. The most freezing-tolerant androgenic plants were more freezing-tolerant than the hybrid plant from which they were derived. Consequently, androgenesis was also effective in removing factor(s) reducing the expression of freezing-tolerance within the L. multiflorum × F. arundinacea (5x) hybrid. |
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Keywords: | Festuca arundinacea Lolium multiflorum androgenesis freezing-tolerance novel variation plant breeding |
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