Abstract
BackgroundIn recent years, sugarcane has attracted increasing attention as an energy crop. Wild resources are widely used to improve the narrow genetic base of sugarcane. However, the infertility of F1 hybrids between Saccharum officinarum (S. officinarum) and Erianthus arundinaceus (E. arundinaceus) has hindered sugarcane breeding efforts. To discover the cause of this infertility, we studied the hybridization process from a cytological perspective.ResultsWe examined the meiotic process of pollen mother cells (PMCs) in three F1 hybrids between S. officinarum and E. arundinaceus. Cytological analysis showed that the male parents, Hainan 92–77 and Hainan 92–105, had normal meiosis. However, the meiosis process in F1 hybrids showed various abnormal phenomena, including lagging chromosomes, micronuclei, uneven segregation, chromosome bridges, and inability to form cell plates. Genomic in situ hybridization (GISH) showed unequal chromatin distribution during cell division. Interestingly, 96.70% of lagging chromosomes were from E. arundinaceus. Furthermore, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was performed using 45S rDNA and 5S rDNA as probes. Either 45S rDNA or 5S rDNA sites were lost during abnormal meiosis, and results of unequal chromosomal separation were also clearly observed in tetrads.ConclusionsUsing cytogenetic analysis, a large number of meiotic abnormalities were observed in F1. GISH further confirmed that 96.70% of the lagging chromosomes were from E. arundinaceus. Chromosome loss was found by further investigation of repeat sequences. Our findings provide insight into sugarcane chromosome inheritance to aid innovation and utilization in sugarcane germplasm resources.
Highlights
In recent years, sugarcane has attracted increasing attention as an energy crop
Pollen vitality test I2-KI (1%) was used to stain mature pollen grains to detect the viability of F1 (Yacheng 96–40) pollen
Meiotic chromosome behavior of Pollen’s mother cell (PMC) in E. arundinaceus and F1 hybrids PMCs were stained with magenta acetate
Summary
Sugarcane has attracted increasing attention as an energy crop. Wild resources are widely used to improve the narrow genetic base of sugarcane. The infertility of F1 hybrids between Saccharum officinarum (S. officinarum) and Erianthus arundinaceus (E. arundinaceus) has hindered sugarcane breeding efforts. As a robust wild genetic resource, E. arundinaceus is frequently used in sugarcane breeding programs worldwide. This species is an important wild sugarcane germplasm resource in the Saccharum complex and was crossed with sugarcane as early as 1885 [6]; around the same time that S. spontaneum began to be used for hybridization. Sugarcane breeders successfully obtained a true BC1 generation of Saccharum hybrids and E. arundinaceus at the Hainan Sugarcane Breeding Station in 2001. The F1 chromosome inheritance pattern of S. officinarum × E. arundinaceus hybrids was n + n [8], and the F1 clones were male sterile. The chromosome behavior of hybrid progeny from sugarcane and E. arundinaceus during meiosis remains unclear
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