Abstract
AbstractGiant reed (Arundo donax L.) is a C3 perennial, warm‐season, rhizomatous grass of emerging interest for bioenergy and biomass derivatives production, and for phytoremediation. It only propagates vegetatively and very little genetic variation is found among ecotypes, basically precluding breeding efforts. With the objective to increase the genetic variation in this species, we developed and applied a mutagenesis protocol based on γ‐irradiation of in vitro cell cultures from which regenerants were obtained. Based on a radiosensitivity test, the irradiation dose reducing to 50% the number of regenerants per callus (RD50) was estimated at 35 Gy. A large mutagenic experiment was carried out by irradiating a total of 3120 calli with approx. 1×, 1.5× and 2× RD50. A total of 1004 regenerants from irradiated calli were hardened in pots and transplanted to the field. Initial phenotypic characterization of the collection showed correlated responses of biomass‐related quantitative traits to irradiation doses. Approx. 10% of field‐grown clones showed remarkable morphological aberrations including dwarfism, altered tillering, abnormal inflorescence, leaf variegation and others, which were tested for stability over generations. Clone lethality reached 0.4%. Our results show for the first time that physical mutagenesis can efficiently induce new genetic and phenotypic variation of agronomic and prospective industrial value in giant reed. The methodology and the plant materials described here may contribute to the domestication and the genetic improvement of this important biomass species.
Highlights
Giant reed (Arundo donax L.) is a wild, perennial, rhizomatous C3 Poaceae species of emerging interest for bioenergy production
With the objective to increase the genetic variation in this species, we developed and applied a mutagenesis protocol based on c-irradiation of in vitro cell cultures from which regenerants were obtained
Our results show for the first time that physical mutagenesis can efficiently induce new genetic and phenotypic variation of agronomic and prospective industrial value in giant reed
Summary
Giant reed (Arundo donax L.) is a wild, perennial, rhizomatous C3 Poaceae species of emerging interest for bioenergy production. With the exception of few reports of seed reproduction (Perdue, 1958; Bor, 1970; Brach & Song, 2006), the species appears sterile and only propagates vegetatively by rhizome and shoot fragmentation during flooding events, and by shoot layering (Boland, 2006; Ceotto & Di Candilo, 2010; Saltonstall et al, 2010; Zegada-Lizarazu et al, 2010) It is unclear whether its sterility is caused by polyploidy (Bucci et al, 2013) or self-incompatibility (Hardion et al, 2015). Besides two recent transcriptome analyses (Sablok et al, 2014; Barrero et al, 2015), no sequencingbased genome investigation has been attempted in giant reed
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