Asymmetric fusion between wild and cultivated species of potato (Solanum spp.) –detection of asymmetric hybrids and genome elimination

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the suitability of different techniques for a simple and rapid identification of asymmetric hybrids, without the use of selection markers and independent of the fusion partners used. Additionally, the degree of donor DNA elimination was determined. Among 473 viable plants obtained from asymmetric fusion experiments between three di-haploid breeding lines of potato (Solanum tuberosum) and diploid wild species (S. bulbocastanum, S. circaeifolium; X-ray treatment of the wild species) the most promising ones were investigated with three different methods: flow cytometry, RFLP analysis with an oligonucleotide probe (GATA)4, and with single-copy probes. Flow cytometry, which combines a high screening capacity with detailed information about the DNA content and allows a distinction between asymmetric hybrids and chimeras, detected 31 hypo-tetraploid and 42 hypo-hexaploid regenerates among 224 plants. With the oligonucleotide probe (GATA)4 only a few asymmetric hybrids were detected among all regenerates. More than 50% of these asymmetric regenerates were chimeras. Concerning the degree of DNA elimination, the results obtained by RFLP analysis with 17 single-copy probes were correlated with the results obtained by flow cytometry. The maximum DNA elimination of the donor genome was 52%. As a trend, an irradiation dosage of 210 Gy caused a higher DNA elimination in the wild species than a dosage of 70 Gy. No calli were obtained after irradiation of the wild species with 420 Gy.