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New insight into the mechanism of heterofertilization during maize haploid induction

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Abstract

To study the influence of both pollen competition ability (PCA) and haploid induction rate (HIR) on heterofertilization, we used maize haploid inducers with different HIRs as male parents. For these experiments, maize plants underwent dual pollination, first by the inducers and then by self-pollination at different time intervals. We found that PCA strongly influenced heterofertilization, as measured by the resulting ratio of hybrid kernels to selfed kernels. When log10 (hybrid kernel/selfed kernel) was close to 0, i.e., when pollen from the different parents arrived at the embryo sac nearly simultaneously, the heterofertilization rate (HFR) was high. Haploid inducers with a high HIR, such as CAU5 and CAUB73, led to not only more haploids and embryo aborted kernels but also more heterofertilized kernels, as compared with a non-inducer or with a haploid inducer with a low HIR. We thus conclude that PCA is an important factor that affects HFR through polytubey. In addition, during maize haploid induction, abnormal fertilization could also contribute to heterofertilization, which may be due to fertilization recovery of kernels that otherwise would have been aborted at early stage.

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Abbreviations

HIR:

Haploid induction rate

PCA:

Pollen competition ability

HFR:

Heterofertilization rate

EmAK:

Embryo aborted kernel

EmAR:

Embryo aborted kernel rate

NIL:

Near-isogenic line

MAS:

Molecular mark assisted selection

SNP:

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms

ZD958:

Single hybrid ZhengDan958

WX:

Waxy corn inbred line

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Grants from The National Key Research and Development Plan—Maize heterosis utilization technology and creation of strong heterosis maize hybrid[s] (2016YFD0101200), and The Modern Maize Industry Technology System (CARS–02–09).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Crop Heterosis and Utilization (MOE), National Maize Improvement Center of China, China Agricultural University, Haidian District, Beijing, 100193, China

    Chenxu Liu, Baojian Chen, Xiaowei Xu, Wei Li, Xin Dong, Xiaolong Tian, Chen Chen, Yu Zhong, Ming Chen & Shaojiang Chen

  2. Institute of Pratacultural Sciences, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, 150086, Heilongjiang, China

    Yanhua Ma

  3. Chongqing Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jiulongpo District, Chongqing, 401329, China

    Xin Dong

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  1. Chenxu Liu
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  2. Baojian Chen
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  3. Yanhua Ma
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  5. Wei Li
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  10. Ming Chen
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  11. Shaojiang Chen
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Correspondence to Shaojiang Chen.

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Liu, C., Chen, B., Ma, Y. et al. New insight into the mechanism of heterofertilization during maize haploid induction. Euphytica 213, 174 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-017-1957-6

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