Abstract
BackgroundSo far, little is known in detail about mating systems of woody bamboos. Paternity analysis of offspring improved our understanding of these systems, and contributed to their germplasm conservation and genetic improvement.ResultsIn this study, a paternity analysis of offspring from two consecutive mass or sporadically flowering events of Dendrocalamus membranaceus and D. sinicus were conducted to determine their mating system and pollen dispersal using the program COLONY based on simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Two sporadically flowering populations of D. sinicus (C1, C2) obtained relatively high paternity assignments rates (69.0–71.4%). Meanwhile, among three populations of D. membranaceus, the sporadically flowering population A also had much higher paternity assignments rates (56.4%) than mass flowering populations B1(28.6%) and B2 (42.5%). Both D. membranaceus and D. sinicus had mixed mating systems while their mating patterns were variable depending on pollination conditions. The maximum pollen dispersal distances were 90 m and 4378 m for D. membranaceus and D. sinicus populations, respectively, and the mating distances of these two species focused on ranges of ca. 0–50 m and 0–1500 m, respectively.ConclusionsThese results revealed for the first time variable mating patterns in woody bamboos. This suggests half-sib seeds from the same bamboo clump may have different male parents and it is crucial to clarify genetic origin in woody bamboos’ breeding programs. The results also indicate the importance of pollinators in the mating systems of tropical woody bamboos.
Highlights
Little is known in detail about mating systems of woody bamboos
Our goals were to understand the characteristics of the mating systems of tropical woody bamboos so as to provide a scientific foundation for germplasm conservation and further genetic improvement
Mating system Outcrossing rates of Dendrocalamus membranaceus and D. sinicus were estimated using MLTR [5], and the result indicated that both D. membranaceus and D. sinicus were predominant outcrossing (Table 1)
Summary
Little is known in detail about mating systems of woody bamboos. Background knowledge of mating systems helps us to develop genetic improvement strategies and establish appropriate conservation measures [6]. Woody bamboos are shrub forest species which have important economic value such as food, construction and pulp materials, as well as important roles in water and soil conservation [9, 10]. There are two common unofficial terms related to flowering and mating systems of bamboos. In terms of the size of flowering forests or populations, woody bamboo flowering events can be divided on the whole into two types, namely mass and sporadic flowering [11, 15, 16]. Due to outstandingly long vegetative growth periods (ca. 20–150 years)
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