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Apomixis via recombination of genome regions for apomeiosis (diplospory) and parthenogenesis in Erigeron (daisy fleabane, Asteraceae)

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Abstract

Apomixis in daisy fleabanes (Erigeron annuus and E. strigosus) is controlled by two genetically unlinked loci that regulate, independently, the formation of unreduced female gametophytes (apomeiosis, diplospory) and autonomous seed formation (parthenogenesis). In this work, fully apomictic F2s were regenerated by crossing F1s bearing, separately, these two functional regions. Two triploid (3x = 2n = 27) highly diplosporous F1s served as seed parents to an aneuploid (2x + 1 = 2n = 19) meiotic pollen donor bearing four AFLP markers linked to parthenogenetic seed formation but producing only abortive embryos and endosperm. Of 408 hybrids, 21 (5.1%) produced seed. Nine of these putative apomicts were tetraploids (4x), likely combining an unreduced egg from the diplosporous seed parent and a haploid gamete from the pollen parent (3x + x). The other 12 hybrid apomicts were pentaploid, interpreted as arising from the fusion of an unreduced diplosporous egg with an unreduced sperm cell (3x + 2x). Analysis indicated that all but three of the 21 synthetic apomicts recombined markers linked to diplospory and parthenogenesis. In addition, three additional hybrids combined markers linked to the two functional regions but produced only aborted embryos. The apomicts varied in percentage of diplosporous ovules (4.7–95.3% of all ovules produced) and in percentage of ovules that developed into seed (3.8–58.0%). These results support the hypothesis that apomeiosis and autonomous seed formation are genetically distinct, and that the traits can be separated and recombined to create hybrids exhibiting apomixis at near wildtype levels.

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Acknowledgements

The author thanks two anonymous reviewers for helpful suggestions on the manuscript, and Loren Rieseberg for insightful ideas on the evolution of apomictic genomes.

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  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA

    Richard D. Noyes

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  1. Richard D. Noyes
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Correspondence to Richard D. Noyes.

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Communicated by S. Russell

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Noyes, R.D. Apomixis via recombination of genome regions for apomeiosis (diplospory) and parthenogenesis in Erigeron (daisy fleabane, Asteraceae). Sex Plant Reprod 19, 7–18 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00497-005-0017-x

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