Molecular and morphological characterization of new interspecific hybrids of alstroemeria originated from A. caryophylleae scented lines

D. Aros,M. Suazo,C. Úbeda,P. Zapata,C. Rivas,M. Bridgen

doi:10.1007/s10681-019-2415-4

Abstract

Alstroemeria is a genus native to South America from which many varieties of ornamental plants have been developed and introduced into the market. Interspecific hybridization followed by embryo rescue has been one of the most common breeding techniques to obtain new varieties. This study was aimed at obtaining alstroemeria hybrids through interspecific crosses using novel scented parental lines and assessing these hybrids. A total of 3669 embryos were rescued, from which 18 flowering plants were morphologically evaluated. Flower stem length ranged from 25 (14E07) to 83 cm (14A11) and most of the flowers showed pink/white colors with stripes over the inner tepals. Only 3 hybrids were perceived as scented and one of them (14E08) was evaluated through GC-MS analysis, detecting 9 VOCs, all of them monoterpenes. Molecular analysis using RAPD markers clustered two main groups: (A) hybrids with A. pelegrina as parental line and (B) hybrids coming from the crossing UC05 × C3 and its reciprocal. Moreover through this analysis was possible to subcluster hybrids coming from different seasons. A protocol for obtaining alstroemeria hybrids was successfully developed for this species using molecular and phenotypic evaluation to provide information about their pedigree and to spot those traits which are attractive for the ornamental plant market.

Highlights

Alstroemeria is a genus native to South America with about 60 described species, most of them native to Chile and Brazil which are the main diversity centres of this genus (Bayer 1987; Munoz and Moreira 2003)
The first alstroemeria hybrids were obtained through the interspecific hybridization between two Chilean species
In De Jeu and Jabosen (1995) discovered that post fertilization barriers were the main limitation when hybridizing alstroemerias, and embryo rescue before abortion was the solution to obtain seedlings coming from interspecific crosses, from taxonomically distant species

Summary

Introduction

Alstroemeria is a genus native to South America with about 60 described species, most of them native to Chile and Brazil which are the main diversity centres of this genus (Bayer 1987; Munoz and Moreira 2003). In De Jeu and Jabosen (1995) discovered that post fertilization barriers were the main limitation when hybridizing alstroemerias, and embryo rescue before abortion was the solution to obtain seedlings coming from interspecific crosses, from taxonomically distant species. Nowadays this technique has been widely developed and used to perform successful crosses and several hybrids have been described coming from hybridization between several Brazilian (i.e. A_inodora, A. psittacina) and Chilean species (i.e. A_aurea, A. pelegrina, A. magnifica, A. angustifolia, A. diluta, A. garaventae, A. hookeri, A. ligtu, A. magenta, A. presliana, A. pulchra, A. versicolor, A. zoellneri) (Hoshino 2008). In order to perform this process more efficiently, some studies have been focused on optimizing the conditions for a successful in vitro embryo rescue, evaluating the culture medium and embryo developmental stage at the moment of the rescue (Buitendijk et al 1995; Lu and Bridgen 1996)

Objectives

Methods

Results