Meiotic behavior in Brachiaria humidicola (Poaceae) hybrids

In the genus Brachiaria, genetic variation can be exploited directly from germplasm collections or released using sexual reproduction in normally apomictic polyploids. The discovery of a natural sexual polyploid accession H031 of Brachiaria humidicola collected in Africa, opened new opportunities to exploit the genetic variation in this species. This accession was crossed with an apomictic cultivar BRS Tupi with the same chromosome number (2n = 36) and 361 F₁ hybrids were obtained. Following visual selection for leafiness, vigor, growth habit, and the mode of reproduction, 50 hybrids were selected for further agronomic evaluation. The parents and 45 of the 50 selected hybrids were evaluated for the regularity of meiosis. In the female parent (H031), meiosis was somewhat irregular, with 16.3% of abnormal tetrads, whereas the male (cv. BRS Tupi) meiosis was very regular, with only 3.1% of abnormal tetrads. Among hybrids (sexual and apomictic), the percentage of abnormal tetrads ranged from 15.8 to 98.3%. The abnormalities included irregular chromosome segregation, chromosome stickiness and the absence of cytokinesis. Considering that apomixis in the genus Brachiaria is pseudogamic, and that meiotic aberrations can compromise pollen viability, the results of this study present another parameter to aid selection for more stable microsporogenesis. Apomictic derivatives with stable meiosis are candidates for new cultivars whereas sexual hybrids can be retained in breeding for another round of recombination.