Transfer of anthracnose resistance and pod coiling traits from Medicago arborea to M. sativa by sexual reproduction

Abstract

Five asymmetric hybrid plants were obtained between Medicago sativa (2n = 4x = 32) and Medicago arborea (2n = 4x = 32) through sexual reproduction and the use of a cytoplasmically male sterile M. sativa genotype. Over 2,000 pollinations were made to obtain these hybrids. Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis showed that in the most studied hybrid (WA2273), 4% of the bands unique to the M. arborea parent were present, versus 72% for the unique M. sativa bands. This suggests that only a single M. arborea chromosome or chromosome parts has been transferred. WA2273 had 7% of AFLP bands which were not present in either parent, which is suggestive of chromosome rearrangements as would be expected if only chromosome parts or a single part had been transferred from M. arborea. Phenotypic evidence for hybridity was obtained for pod coiling (1.4 coils in WA2273 versus three coils in the M. sativa parent and its self and testcross populations, and one coil in M. arborea), and Colletotrichum trifolii race 2 resistance (transferred from the resistant M. arborea parent, as the M. sativa parent and the self populations were highly susceptible). The hybrids were self sterile, but were female fertile to a high level when crossed with 4x, but not 2x, M. sativa, indicating they were at or near 4x. Both the pod coiling trait and anthracnose resistance segregated in the progeny of testcrosses between WA2273 and M. sativa. The work demonstrates that agronomically useful traits can be introgressed into M. sativa from M. arborea by use of male sterile M. sativa and sexual reproduction.