Characterization of Chromosome Inheritance of the Intergeneric BC2 and BC3 Progeny between Saccharum spp. and Erianthus arundinaceus.

Ping Wang,Jiayun Wu,Cheng Fu,Rukai Chen,Randall P Niedz,Muqing Zhang,Zuhu Deng,Qiwei Li,Qinnan Wang,Yongji Huang,Yanquan Lin

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0133722

Abstract

Erianthus arundinaceus (E. arundinaceus) has many desirable agronomic traits for sugarcane improvement, such as high biomass, vigor, rationing ability, tolerance to drought, and water logging, as well as resistance to pests and disease. To investigate the introgression of the E. arundinaceus genome into sugarcane in the higher generations, intergeneric BC2 and BC3 progeny generated between Saccharum spp. and E. arundinaceus were studied using the genomic in situ hybridization (GISH) technique. The results showed that the BC2 and BC3 generations resulted from n + n chromosome transmission. Furthermore, chromosome translocation occurred at terminal fragments from the E. arundinaceus chromosome in some progeny of Saccharum spp. and E. arundinaceus. Notably, the translocated chromosomes could be stably transmitted to their progeny. This study illustrates the characterization of chromosome inheritance of the intergeneric BC2 and BC3 progeny between Saccharum spp. and E. arundinaceus. This work could provide more useful molecular cytogenetic information for the germplasm resources of E. arundinaceus, and may promote further understanding of the germplasm resources of E. arundinaceus for sugarcane breeders to accelerate its progress in sugarcane commercial breeding.

Highlights

Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) is a large perennial grass that is indigenous to tropical and subtropical regions
The plant materials used in this study consisted of 17 progeny derived from two generations (BC2 and BC3) of intergeneric hybrids between Saccharum spp. and E. arundinaceus (Table 1)
Genomic in situ hybridization (GISH) experiments of nine BC2 progeny revealed plants with a total chromosome complement ranging from 107 to 121 chromosomes, of which 97–105 were derived from Saccharum spp. and 9–16 from E. arundinaceus, respectively (Table 2, Fig 1A–1I; Figs A-I in S1 File)

Summary

Introduction

Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) is a large perennial grass that is indigenous to tropical and subtropical regions. The objectives were as follows: (1) to determine the chromosome transmission in these two generations, which can provide a reference for breeding strategies for further deployment of genes and traits from E. arundinaceus; and (2) to determine the presence of various types of intergeneric chromosomal translocation and obtain information on whether they can be inherited, which can provide a basic understanding for efficient utilization in sugarcane breeding.

Results

Conclusion