Abstract
Erianthus arundinaceus is not only an important germplasm resource for sugarcane breeding but also a potential bioenergy plant. Making clear the distribution of the chromosome ploidy of wild E. arundinaceus in china is the premise of the research and utilization of this species. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to determine the ploidy level and DNA content of the 55 E. arundinaceus accessions using flow cytometry and to identify the correlation between ploidy and phenotypic traits. Among the 55 accessions, four tetraploids and 51 hexaploids were identified. The four tetraploids originated from Mengma Yunnan, Shuangjiang Yunnan, Gaozhou Guangdong and Chengle Sichuan. The mean DNA content was 4.82 pg/2C for the tetraploid and 7.30 pg/2C for the hexaploid plants. The ploidy was negatively correlated with cellulose content and positively correlated (P<0.05) with plant height, stem diameter, leaf width, dry weight per plant, fresh weight per plant and hemicellulose content. However, ploidy was not correlated with leaf length, tiller number and the ratio of dry weight and fresh weight. This study will be useful for revealing the distribution of the ploidy of wild E. arundinaceus in Chin, traits markers analysis, and utilization of this species, such as cultivar improvement and sugarcane breeding in the future.
Highlights
Erianthus arundinaceus is a perennial tall herb with dense clusters, and it is one of the most important wild species that are closely related to the genus of Saccharum officinarum L. [1]
The differences in DNA content between the tetraploid and hexaploid plants are indicated by the relative fluorescence intensity (Fig 1, S1 and S2 Datasets)
The tetraploids had DNA content ranging from 4.735 to 4.937 pg (Table 1). Two of these plants were from Yunnan province, and the other two plants were from the Sichuan and Guangdong provinces
Summary
Erianthus arundinaceus is a perennial tall herb with dense clusters, and it is one of the most important wild species that are closely related to the genus of Saccharum officinarum L. [1]. Erianthus arundinaceus is a perennial tall herb with dense clusters, and it is one of the most important wild species that are closely related to the genus of Saccharum officinarum L. E. arundinaceus plays an important role in breeding high-yield and high-sugar content sugarcane [2,3,4] due to its rich intraspecific variation, strong rooting and tillering ability, wide adaptability, and doughty resistance to abiotic and biotic stressors. Ploidy Level and DNA Content of Erianthus arundinaceus PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0151948 March 24, 2016
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