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Chromosome doubling procedures of onion (Allium cepa L.) gynogenic embryos

  • Genetics and Genomics
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Abstract

A novel approach for chromosome doubling that consists of treating embryos instead of parts of micropropagated plants was investigated. Following 2-year trials, amiprofos-methyl (APM) was found to be superior to oryzalin on the basis of a lower toxicity, and we were able to narrow the range of concentrations of APM. The addition of 2% dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) and 1% Triton X-100 to 25 μM APM had no effect in all treatments. A final experiment with 6,658 embryos demonstrated that a 2-day treatment in liquid media supplemented with 50 μM APM was the most successful with respect to chromosome doubling—36.7% of the plants were diploid—but the survival rate was reduced to 52.5% of that of the non-treated control. A 2-day treatment in liquid medium supplemented with 25 μM APM or a 2-day treatment on solid medium with 50 μM APM resulted in the production of diploids at a frequency of 28.9% and 21.3%, respectively. These may represent alternative methods for chromosome doubling since compared to the untreated control these two treatments reduced the survival rate by only about 24%. Final ploidy and fertility of the large proportion of induced mixoploid plants (up to 30.3%) need to be evaluated in further studies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, 1000 , Ljubljana, Slovenia

    M. Jakše & B. Bohanec

  2. Department of Horticulture, Agricultural Research Service, USDA, University of Wisconsin, 1575 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA

    M. J. Havey

Authors
  1. M. Jakše
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  2. M. J. Havey
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  3. B. Bohanec
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Correspondence to B. Bohanec.

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Communicated by H. Lörz

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Jakše, M., Havey, M.J. & Bohanec, B. Chromosome doubling procedures of onion (Allium cepa L.) gynogenic embryos. Plant Cell Rep 21, 905–910 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-003-0595-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-003-0595-8

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