ORIGIN OF FRAGARIA POLYPLOIDS. II. UNREDUCED AND DOUBLED‐UNREDUCED GAMETES

Abstract

Offspring from natural hybrids between octoploid Fragaria chiloensis (2n = 56) and diploid F. vesca (2n = 14) backcrossed under natural conditions to F. chiloensis were studied. The natural F1 hybrids themselves were of three kinds: (1) The expected pentaploids which resulted from the union of normally reduced gametes of diploid F. vesca and octoploid F. chiloensis; (2) A hexaploid F1 hybrid which resulted from the union of an unreduced gamete from diploid F. vesca with a normally reduced gamete from octoploid F. chiloensis; and (3) A 9‐ploid F1 hybrid which probably arose from the union of an unreduced gamete of the octoploid F. chiloensis with a normally reduced gamete of diploid F. vesca. The progenies that resulted from the natural backcrossing of each of the three sorts of F1 hybrids to F. chiloensis were as follows: The pentaploid F1 hybrids (2n = 35) yielded mostly 9‐ploid offspring from unreduced 5X gametes; a relatively high percentage of 14‐ploid plants arising from doubled‐unreduced 10 X gametes and a few 2N = ±46 aneuploids from reduced gametes. The hexaploid F1 hybrid (2n = 42) on backcrossing yielded over 50% 10‐ploid offspring with the rest 2n = ±50 aneuploids from reduced gametes. The 9‐ploid F1 hybrid (2n = 63) on backcrossing yielded mostly aneuploids normally distributed about a modal 2n = 59 chromosome class resulting from a 31 chromosome gamete, with a few 2n = 56 and 2n = 63 euploids. The 9‐ploids may facilitate diploid Å octoploid introgression. Screening of the open‐pollinated offspring from F. chiloensis revealed almost 2% 12‐ploid (2n = 84) offspring from the union of the reduced and unreduced F. chiloensis gametes. The probable genomic constitution of the observed novel ploidy levels and those that theoretically may be generated from the known hybrids are presented. The origin of the existing polyploids from diploids through simple unreduction is postulated.