Vigor and variation expressed by anther-derived doubled haploids of burley tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.). II. Evaluation of first- and second-cycle doubled haploids

Abstract

First- and second-cycle doubled haploids of burley tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) were examined to ascertain the significance of source genotype on the performance of anther-derived material and to determine the magnitude of changes from the haploid-production and chromosome-doubling stages. The anther-derived lines evaluated in this study did not exhibit siginficant yield reductions. However, significant interactions between the cycle comparison and the source genotypes indicated that source genotype can affect the degree of vigor reduction observed. Significant variation was also observed among the second-cycle doubled haploids examined in this study. Partitioning of this variation indicates that most of it is due to alteration present at the haploid-production step instead of the chromosome-doubling step. In general, the variation present in the second-cycle doubled haploids was distributed around the values observed for the source first-cycle doubled haploids. Even though unexpected variation is often observed in anther-derived materials, these results suggest that reduced vigor is not intrinsically associated with androgenetic lines of burley tobacco. The most plausible explanations for the variation and vigor losses in anther-derived lines propose that natural phenomena, given the opportunity for expression via anther culture, are responsible. Spontaneous variants present in the gametic pool of inbreds or first-cycle doubled haploids offer one possible explanation for the performance observed in anther-derived lines of tobacco.