Colchicine did not affect the viability of induced 2n pollen in Populus tomentosa

Colchicine is widely used as a mutagen to induce production of diploid gametes in plants. However, whether colchicine affects induced pollen viability remains unclear. To clarify whether colchicine affected the viability of induced pollen, we induced production of diploid pollen by colchicine, followed by pollen germination and crossing induced pollen with normal gametes to produce triploid in Carrière. The results showed that the predominant meiotic stages and the number of colchicine injections had significant effects on the occurrence rates of induced 2n pollen. When the colchicine injection was given at diakinesis, a significant decrease in the pollen production per bud was observed ( < 0.001). The morphology of the colchicine-induced 2n pollen was similar to that of the natural 2n pollen in its ectexine structure. The pollen germination experiments revealed that there was also no significant difference in germination rates between the induced diploid pollen and natural 2n pollen grains, and 68 triploids were created by crossing colchicine-induced pollen. Our findings revealed that colchicine injection could induce to produce 2n pollen and will not lead to dysfunction of induced diploid pollen.in vitroPopulus tomentosapP. tomentosa

Pollination requirements of seeded and seedless mini watermelon varieties cultivated under protected environment

The objective of this work was to evaluate the floral biology and pollination requirements of seeded and seedless mini watermelon varieties, and to determine the best varieties to cultivate under protected environment. Three seedless (HA-5106, HA-5158, and HA-5161) and two seeded (Minipol and Polimore) genotypes were tested. Flowers were monitored from the pre-anthesis stage to senescence, and fruit quality was also evaluated. The evaluated treatments were hand-geitonogamous pollination (MG), cross-pollination with pollen from the Polimore variety (MCP), cross-pollination with pollen from the Minipol variety (MCM), and restricted pollination. All varieties had monoecious plants with diclinous flowers, and the stigmas remained receptive throughout anthesis. Fruit set rates of 84.62% (MG), 61.54% (MCP), 48% (MCM), and 0% (restricted) were obtained for seeded varieties, but of 0% (MG), 76.36% (MCP), 82.69% (MCM), and 0% (restricted) for seedless varieties. Fruits did not differ in quality among treatments within each genotype. Therefore, all the studied varieties require a pollination agent and diploid pollen for fruit set to occur, regardless of the donor variety; and Minipol or Polimore with HA-5106 or HA-5158 are the varieties recommended for cultivation in protected environment.

Breeding triploid aspen and poplar clones for biomass production

Enriched diploid pollen was applied for in vitro pollinations and crossbreeding in the greenhouse to produce high performance triploid aspen and aspen hybrids for cultivation in medium rotation plantations. In addition to crossings within the section Populus, intersectional crossbreeding was performed to combine benefits of intersectional hybridization with those derived from triploidisation.Both the enrichment of diploid pollen by size fractionation of naturally unreduced pollen and heat treatment of microspore mother cells resulted in a distinct increase of diploid pollen. Using this pollen, six triploid plants were obtained from in vitro pollinations and twenty from crossbreeding in the greenhouse. The triploid plants displayed a high variability in growth performance. Two clones from in vitro pollination and five from crossbreeding in the greenhouse were chosen to estimate growth characteristics. A first assessment of clone performance in an outdoor container test con - ducted over one growing season revealed two triploid clones with a same stem height and a significantly increased basal stem diameter in comparison to the fast-growing triploid reference clone “Astria”. Crossbreeding experiments also resulted in two fast-growing mixoploid clones, which have already been stable for several years.All in all, in this study, crossbreeding using enriched diploid pollen is proved to be a reliable and applicable approach for an effective breeding of triploid poplars.

Gametophyte Genetics in Zeu mays L.: Dominance of a Restoration-of-Fertility Allele (Rf3) in Diploid Pollen

In Zea mays L. plants carrying the S-type of sterility-inducing cytoplasm, male fertility is determined by a gametophytic, nuclear restoration-of-fertility gene. Haploid pollen carrying the fertility-restoring allele (historically designated Rf3) is starch-filled and functional, whereas pollen carrying the nonrestoring allele (historically designated rf3) is shrunken and nonfunctional. Because restoration of fertility occurs in haploid tissue, the dominance relationship of restoring and nonrestoring alleles is unknown. We have tested the dominance relationship of the restoring and nonrestoring alleles at the rf3 locus in diploid pollen. The meiotic mutant elongate was used to generate tetraploid plants carrying both Rf3 and rf3 alleles in the S cytoplasm. These plants shed predominantly starch-filled pollen, consistent with dominance of the restoring allele. Restriction fragment length polymorphisms linked to the rf3 locus demonstrated cotransmission of rf3 and Rf3 alleles through heterozygous diploid pollen, providing conclusive genetic evidence that the restoring allele is the dominant or functional form of this restoration-of-fertility gene. We suggest that other Scytoplasm restorers result from loss-of-function mutations and propose analysis of unreduced gametes as a test of this model.