Genetic variation in distant and inbred hybridization progenies from three sympodial bamboo parent species

Abstract

To achieve germplasm innovation and study genetic variation of important traits of bamboo plants, we used Bambusa multiplex, B. chungii, and Dendrocalamus latiflorus as parent materials for distant and inbred hybridizations. Two hybrid populations and three inbred populations were obtained: two populations consisted of 57 hybrid progenies from B. multiplex × B. chungii, 26 hybrid progenies from B. multiplex × D. latiflorus, and three inbred progenies were from B. multiplex, B. chungii, and D. latiflorus. Traits for growth, morphology, and fiber were examined from the five populations when plants were 3 years old. Two hybrid populations had significant growth advantages in terms of height, diameter at ground level and internodal length. In terms of variability in morphological traits, the two hybrid populations followed the same trend, namely, seven morphological traits showed phenotypes that were intermediate to those of their parents; three morphological traits showed strong maternal effects, and three other morphological traits showed strong paternal effects. Among the five populations, the two hybrid populations had high arithmetic average fiber length, length-weighted average fiber length and mass-weighted average fiber length, moreover, extensive variations of these three traits were observed within these two hybrid populations. The establishment of distant hybrid populations from these three bamboo species increased the genetic diversity more than in the other species examined. This work provides excellent materials for breeding new varieties and lays the foundation for understanding the genetics of important traits by analyzing related functional genes.