Crossability between Arachis hypogaea L.and Erectoides species A.sp.9990 GKP

Eighteen cultivars representing five botanical types of Arachis hypogaea L.were se-lected as female parents to cross with A.sp.9990,an Erectoides accession with resistance to mul-tiple diseases and pests.All the crosses failed to produce viable seeds mainly due to embryo abor-tions.Three morphologically different types of embryo abortion were recorded.Marked differ-ences were observed between subspecies,and among botanical types and genotypes in hybrid podproduction and embryo development.In terms of pod production per 100 pollinations,subspeciesfastigiata was superior to subspecies hypogaea,and Valencia and Virginia types performed betterthan Spanish and Peruvian types.Fengqiu Yibazhua and Silihong were among the most acceptablegenotypes by showing higher pod productions and delayed embryo abortions.These results sug-gest that through extensive screenings,particular genotypes with higher crossability or lessincompatibility with A.sp 9990 can be obtained,and the use of such genotypes in

Crossability of Putative Hybrids of <i>Pinus sylvestris</i>and <i>Pinus mugo</i>with Their Parents

Artificial hybridization experiment with the Pinus sylvestris and Pinus mugo putative hybrid individuals and their parents revealed a selective nature of their crossability conditioned by the identical chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) haplotypes of the crossed individuals. Efficiency of hybridization between hybrid individual H1 of P. sylvestris haplotype and P. sylvestris paternal tree was relatively high, as evidenced by 78.03% of filled seeds. On the contrary, the crossing of H1 individual with P. mugo was unsuccessful. Likewise, the crossability of the H2 individual of P. mugo haplotype with the paternal tree P. mugo resulted in 31.15% of filled seeds. A relatively high crossability was characteristic also for the H1 and H2 hybrid trees of different cpDNA haplotypes. A conclusion has been drawn postulating weakened reproduction barrier between hybrid swarm individuals and the paternal species P. sylvestris and P. mugo. Differentiation of the putatively hybrid individuals from the parental species is accompanied by the variation in cpDNA inheritance.

Crossability Barriers in the Interspecific Hybridization between Oryza sativa and O.meyeriana

Oryza meyeriana Baill （GG genome） is a precious germplasm in the tertiary gene pool of cultivated rice （AA genome）, and possesses important traits such as resistance and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress. However, interspeciflc crossability barrier, a critical bottleneck restricting genes transfer from O. meyeriana to cultivars has led to no hybrids through conventional reproduction. Therefore, the reasons underlying incrossability were investigated in the present report. The results showed that： （i） at 3-7 d after pollination （DAP）, many hybrid embryos degenerated at the earlier globular-shaped stage, and could not develop into the later pear-shaped stage. Meanwhile, free endosperm nuclei started to degenerate at 1 DAP, and cellular endosperm could not form at 3 DAP, leading to nutrition starvation for young embryo development; （ii） at 11-13 DAP, almost all hybrid ovaries aborted. Even though 72.22% of hybrid young embryos were produced in the interspecific hybridization between O. sativa and O. meyeriana, young embryos were not able to further develop into hybrid plantlets via culturing in vitro. The main reason for the incrossability was hybrid embryo inviability, presenting as embryo development stagnation and degeneration since 3 DAP. Some possible approaches to overcome the crossability barriers in the interspecific hybridization between O. sativa and O. meyeriana are discussed.

Discovery of quantitative trait loci for crossability from a synthetic wheat genotype

Crossability between wheat and rye is an important trait for wheat improvement. No quantitative trait loci （QTLs） were detected from wheat ancestors previously. The objectives of this study were to dissect the QTLs for crossability using 111 introgression lines （ILs） derived from synthetic hexaploid wheat. A total of 1275 SSR markers were screened for polymorphism between the two parents, and 552 markers of them displayed polymorphism, of which 64 were selected for genotyping the 111 BCsF6 ILs. Field trials were performed in a Latinized ~z-lattice design in Luoyang and Jiaozuo of Henan Province of China in 2007--2008 and 2008-2009 cropping seasons. One-way ANOVA and interval mapping （IM） analysis were used to detect QTL for crossability between wheat and rye. A total of 13 putative QTLs were detected. Five of them, QCa.caas.lA, QCa.caas.2D, QCa.caas.4B, QCa.caas.5B and QCa.caas.6A, were detected in both trials and three of them, QCa.caas.2D, QCa.caas.4B and QCa.caas.6A, were novel. The positive effect allele of the four QTLs came from the donor parent Am3 except QCa.caas.6A that came from the recurrent parent Laizhou953. ILs with both higher positive effect alleles and favorable agronomic traits developed in present study are elite germplasm for wide crossing in wheat. Results from the current study suggest that wheat ancestors can be rich in new sources of crossability genes.

Cytological Behavior of Hybridization Barriers Between Oryza sativa and Oryza officinalis

Oryza officinalis is one of the important wild species in the tertiary gene pool of Oryza sativa. It has a number of elite genes for rice breeding in resistance or tolerance. However, breeding barriers are so serious that the gene transfer is much difficult by sexual cross method between O. sativa and O. officinalis. Characteristics of the breeding barriers were systemically studied in this paper. When both the diploid （AA, 2n=2x=24） and autotetraploid （AAAA, 2n=4x=48） cultivated rice were crossed as maternal parents with O. officinalis （CC, 2n=2x=24）, none F1 hybrid seeds were obtained. The young hybrid ovaries aborted at 13-16 d after pollinations （DAP）. By rescuing hybrid embryos, in vitro F1 plantlets were obtained in 2x×2x combinations with the crossabilities lower than 0.5%. Lower rates of double-fertilization and abnormal development of hybrid embryo and endosperm were mainly observed in both combinations of 2x×2x and 4x×2x. Free endosperm nuclei in hybrid degenerated early at 1 DAP in a large scale. Almost no normal endosperm cells formed at 3 DAP. Development of a lot of embryos ceased at globularor pear-shaped stage as well as some degenerated gradually. The hybrid plantlets were both male and female sterility. Due to the abnormal development, a diversity of abnormal embryo sacs formed in hybrids, and hybrid pollen grains were typically abortive. It showed that conflicts of genome A and C in hybrid induced abnormal meioses of meiocytes.