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High-resolution physical mapping reveals that the apospory-specific genomic region (ASGR) in Cenchrus ciliaris is located on a heterochromatic and hemizygous region of a single chromosome

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Abstract

An apomictic mode of reproduction known as apospory is displayed by most buffelgrass (Cenchrus ciliaris) genotypes, but rare sexual individuals have been identified. Previously, intraspecific crosses between sexual and aposporous genotypes allowed linkage to be discovered between the aposporous mode of reproduction and nine molecular markers that had been isolated from an aposporous relative, Pennisetum squamulatum. This region was described as the apospory-specific genomic region (ASGR). We now show an ideogram of the chromosome complement for aposporous tetraploid buffelgrass accession B-12-9 including the ASGR-carrier chromosome. The ASGR-carrier chromosome has a region of hemizygosity, as determined by in situ hybridization of BAC clones and unique morphological characteristics when compared with other chromosomes in the genome. In spite of its unique morphology, the ASGR-carrier chromosome could be identified as one of the chromosomes of a meiosis I quadrivalent. A similar partially hemizygous segment was also detected in the ASGR-carrier chromosome of the aposporous buffelgrass genotype, Higgins, but not in the sexual accession B-2S. Two non-recombining BACs linked to apospory were physically mapped on a highly condensed chromatin region of the short arm of B-12-9, and the distance between the BACs was estimated to be ∼11 Mbp, a distance similar to what previously has been shown in P. squamulatum. The short arm of the ASGR-carrier chromosome was highly condensed at pachytene and extended only 1.7–2.7 fold that of mitotic chromosomes. Low recombination in the ASGR may partially be due to its localization in heterochromatin.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the technical assistance of Anne Bell, Evelyn Perry, Gunawati Gunawan, and Jacolyn Merriman. We appreciate Drs. Joann A. Conner and Shailendra Goel for helpful discussion and comments. We thank Dr. Nobuko Ohmido for providing 5S rDNA plasmid and Prof. Kiichi Fukui and Mr. Seiji Kato for technical advice to make the quantitative ideogram. This work was supported by the USDA National Research Initiative (award no. 02-35301-12283) and the National Science Foundation (award no. 0115911).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Horticulture, University of Georgia Tifton Campus, Tifton, GA, 31793-0748, USA

    Yukio Akiyama & Peggy Ozias-Akins

  2. Departments of Crop and Soil Sciences, University of Georgia Tifton Campus, Tifton, GA, 31793-0748, USA

    Wayne W. Hanna

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  1. Yukio Akiyama
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  2. Wayne W. Hanna
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  3. Peggy Ozias-Akins
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Correspondence to Peggy Ozias-Akins.

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Communicated by J. S. Heslop-Harrison

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Akiyama, Y., Hanna, W.W. & Ozias-Akins, P. High-resolution physical mapping reveals that the apospory-specific genomic region (ASGR) in Cenchrus ciliaris is located on a heterochromatic and hemizygous region of a single chromosome. Theor Appl Genet 111, 1042–1051 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-005-0020-5

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