Genome composition of triploid lily cultivars derived from sexual polyploidization of Longiflorum × Asiatic hybrids (Lilium)

Abstract

About 19 cultivars, which had originated from backcrosses between F1 LA (Longiflorum × Asiatic) hybrids (2n = 2x = 24) as female parents and Asiatic cultivars as male parents (2n = 2x = 24), were analyzed with genomic in situ hybridization. 17 of them were triploid (2n = 3x = 36), and two aneuploid (2n = 3x + 1 = 37). The triploid cultivars had resulted from the functional 2n eggs produced by the female parents (F1 hybrids) because first division restitution (FDR) occurred in their meiosis during megasporogenesis. Similarly, the aneuploid cultivars had originated from viable 2n + 1 eggs. The extra chromosome in cultivar 041555 or 041572 resulted from one univalent or one half-bivalent which might have lagged behind when the sister chromatids of the other univalents and half-bivalents were segregating during the FDR process in their LA hybrid parents, respectively. That the majority of cultivars possessed recombinant chromosomes showed that intergenomic recombination might play an important role during the selection of the cultivars directly from BC1 progenies. That five cultivars of the 15 recombinant cultivars only had reciprocal recombinant chromosomes and 10 cultivars had non-reciprocal recombinant chromosomes indicates that the latter are more important. Because 9 of the 10 non-reciprocal recombinant cultivars possessed substitutions for recombinant segments, it also indicated that such substitutions could be an important source for the genetic variation in the sexual triploid BC1 progenies. In such cases there was a potential for the expression of the recessive genes of the backcross parent in a nulliplex (aaa) condition in the substituted segments. Genetic variation resulting from such nulliplex loci might have played a role in the selection of some of the cultivars.