Abstract
The pentaploid hybrid of Lolium multiflorum and Festuca arundinacea (2n = 5x = 35) combines the high growth rate of L. multiforum with the drought resistance and freezing-tolerance of F. arundinacea. Unfortunately, it also displays the deleterious traits associated with Festuca, namely those associated with high leaf fibre content giving rise to poor palatability and digestibility. To access different combinations of these characters, anther cultures were initiated and regenerated into single embryo derived plants. The anther culture method was very productive since out of a total of 2349 androgenic plants derived from the same parent plant, 57% were green plantlets, although only 507 (22%) subsequently established into plants following transfer to soil. Chromosome counts of randomly selected lines showed that plants with euploid chromosome numbers (14, 21, and 28) would appear to have selective advantage during regeneration. There was wide variation between mature androgenic plants grown under field conditions in plant height, leaf length, leaf width, tiller number and herbage dry matter. The variation between genotypes in response to drought stress was assessed by placing replicate clones under rain-out shelters or under irrigated control conditions in the field. Herbage dry matter under drought was higher in a number of androgenic lines than either parents, but not higher than the pentaploid hybrid. Androgenesis was shown to be a highly effective procedure to expose diverse phenotypic variation all derived from the same Lolium × Festuca hybrid genotype.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Breese, E.L., E.J. Lewis & G.M. Evans, 1981. Interspecies hybrids and polyploidy. Phil Trans Royal Soc, London B 292: 487–497.
Davies, P.A. & S. Morton, 1998. A comparison of barley isolated microspores and anther culture and the influence of cell culture density. Plant Cell Rep 17: 206–210.
Fisher, R.A., 1950. Contributions to Mathematical Statistics. Wiley, New York.
Garwood, E.A. & J. Sinclair, 1979. Use of water by six grass species. 2. Root distribution and use of soil water. J Agri Sci Cambridge 95: 25–35.
Hou, L., S.E. Ullrich, A. Kleinhofs & C.M. Stiff, 1993. Improvement of anther culture methods for doubled haploid production in barley breeding. Plant Cell Rep 12: 334–338.
Humphreys, M.W. & H. Thomas, 1993. Improved drought resistance in introgression lines derived from Lolium multiflorum ?Festuca arundinacea hybrids. Plant Breed 111: 155–161.
Humphreys, M.O., 1994. The value of interspecific hybridisation in breeding for improved tolerance of climatic stress. In: O.H. Rognli, E. Solberg & I. Schjelderup (Eds.), pp. 295–296. Kluwer Academic publishers, Dordrecht, Boston and London, Netherlands.
Humphreys, M.W. & M. Ghesquière, 1994. Assessing gene transfer between Lolium multiflorum and Festuca arundinacea. Euphytica 77: 283–289.
Humphreys, M.W., A.G. Zare, I. Pasakinskiene, H. Thomas, W.T. Rogers & H.A. Collin, 1998. Interspecific genomic rearrangements in androgenic plants derived from a Lolium multiflorum ?Festuca arundinaceae (12n = 5x = 35) hybrid. Heredity 80: 78–82.
Humphreys, M.W., Z. Zwierzykowski, H.A. Collin, W.J. Rogers, A.G. Zare & A. Lesniewska, 2000. Androgenesis in grasses - methods and aspects for future breeding. Proc of COST 824, Bled, Slovenia 1-5 July 2000, pp. 5-13.
Karp, A., 1995. Somaclonal variation as a tool for crop improvement. Euphytica 85: 295–302.
Lesniewska, A., A. Ponitka, A. Slusarkiewicz-Jarzina, E. Zwierzykowska, Z. Zwierzykowski, A.R. James, H. Thomas & M.W. Humphreys, 2000. Androgenesis from Festuca pratensis ?Lolium multiflorum amphidiploid cultivars in order to select and stabilise rare gene combinations for grass breeding. Heredity (in press).
Luckett, D.J. & R.A. Smithard, 1992. Doubled haploid production by anther culture for Australian barley breeding. Aust J agric Res 43: 67–78.
Madsen, S., A. Olesen, B. Dennis & S.B. Andersen, 1995. Inheritance of anther-culture response in perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.). Plant Breed 114: 165–168.
Mandal, N. & S. Gupta, 1997. Anther culture of an interspecific rice hybrid and selection of fine grain type with submergence tolerance. PI Cell Tiss Organ Cult 51: 79–82.
Marie, D. & C.B. Spencer, 1993. A cytometric exercise in plant DNA histograms with 2C values for 70 species. Biol Cell 78: 41–51.
Moeni, A., C. deVallavielle Pope & A. Sarrafi, 1997. Potential use of doubled haploid lines for the screening of resistance to yellow rust (Puccinia striformis) in hexaploid wheat. Plant Breed 116: 595–597.
Morgan, W.G., 1976. A technique for the production of polyploids in grasses. Euphytica 256: 443–446.
Olesen, A., S.B. Andersen & I.K. Due, 1988. Anther culture of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.). Plant Breed 101: 60–65.
Rose, J.B., J.M. Dunwell & N. Sunderland, 1987. Anther culture of Lolium multiflorum, Festuca pratensis, and Lolium ?Festuca hybrids. Influence of pretreatment, culture medium and culture incubation conditions on callus production and differentiation Ann Bot 60: 191–201.
SAS 1990. SAS/STAT User's guide, Version 6, 4th Edition. Vol 2, Cary, N.C. SAS Institute Inc., pp. 1241–1263.
Thomas, H. & C. Evans 1990. Influence of drought and flowering on growth and water relations of perennial ryegrass populations. Ann Appl Biol 116: 371–382.
Thomas, H. & M.O. Humphreys, 1991. Review: Progress and potential of interspecific hybrids of Lolium and Festuca. JAgric Sci 117: 1–8.
Ward, A.P., 1993. The Use of Interspecific Hybrids in Forage Grass Breeding. MSc thesis, University of Wales, UK.
Wenzel, G. & W. Foroughi-Wehr, 1984. Anther culture of cereals and grasses. In: I.K. Vasil (Ed.), Cell Culture and Somatic Cell Genetics. Current Plant Science and Biotechnology in Agriculture, pp. 311–327. Academic Press Inc., New York.
Zare, A.G., 1996. Anther Culture in Intergeneric Hybrids of Forage Grasses. PhD Thesis. Univ of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
Zare, A.G., M.W. Humphreys, W.J. Rogers & H.A. Collin, 1999. Androgenesis from a Lolium multiflorum ?Festuca arundinacea hybrid to generate extreme variation for freezing-tolerance. Plant Breed 118: 497–501.
Zwierzkowski, Z., A.J. Lukeszewski, A. Lesniewska & B. Naganowska, 1998. Genomic structure of androgenic progeny of pentaploid hybrids, Festuca arundinaceae ?Lolium multi-florum. Plant Breed 117: 457–467.
Zwierzkowski, Z., E. Zwierzykowska, A. Slusarkiewicz-Jarzina & A. Ponitka, 1999. Regeneration of anther-derived plants from pentaploid hybrids of Festuca arundinacea ?Lolium multi-florum. Euphytica 105: 191–195.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zare, A., Humphreys, M., Rogers, J. et al. Androgenesis in a Lolium multiflorum × Festuca arundinacea hybrid to generate genotypic variation for drought resistance. Euphytica 125, 1–11 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015781927775
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015781927775