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Materials and methods

The species used for morphological analysis and intergeneric hybridizations in the present study were collected in 1987. The experimental materials are listed in
Table 1.

Roegneria tsukushiensis (Honda) Lu B. R., Yen et J. L. Yang was used as male parent. The spikes of Kengyilia gobicola Yen et J. L. Yang and K. zhaosuensis J. L. Yang, Yen et Baum were emasculated and covered with cellulose bag. The hand-emasculated spikes were pollinated two days later by brushing maternal stigmas with newly broken anthers of the paternal species. Caryopses showing enlargement at 14 days were excised for embryo culture. Seedlings at the three leaves stage were transplanted into sand culture pots, watered with complete nutrient solution, and kept in low temperature room over summer.

Morphological characters were compared between the the parents and their F1 hybrids.

For cytological observation, the young spikes were fixed in Carnoy's I solution (alcohol:acetic acid = 3:1), and stored in a refrigerator. Chromosome pairings were observed at the MI of the pollen mother cells (PMCs) using the aceto-carmine smear method. Photographs were taken by Olympus AD-10 camera system.

Voucher specimen of the parents and the F1 hybrids have been kept in the nursery and the herbarium of Triticeae Research Institute, Sichuan Agricultural University.


Results

Production and morphology of F1 hybrids: K. gobicola and K. zhaosuensis were used as female parents in crossing with R. tsukushiensis. The results are shown in
Table 2. One well growing seedling was obtained by means of embryo culture for K. gobicola x R. tsukushiensis and K. zhaosuensis X R. tsukushiensis, respectively.

Eighteen morphological characters of the parents and the hybrids were observed and measured as shown in
Table 3. Number of spikelets per spike and florets per spikelet in R. tsukushiensis are more than those in K. gobicola and K. zhaosuensis. Lengths of spike, spikelet, awn on lower and upper glumes, lemma and awn on lemma, and palea of R. tsukushiensis were longer than those of K. gobicola and K. zhaosuensis. The lower and upper glumes of R. tsukushiensis are as long as those of K. gobicola, while shorter than those of K. zhaosuensis. The lemmas and rachis of K. gobicola were pubescent, while those of R. tsukushiensis were glabrous. The lemmas of K. zhaosuensis was pubescent. The F1 hybrids of K. gobicola x R. tsukushiensis and K. zhaosuensis x R. tsukushiensis were intermediate between their parents in morphology. Since K. gobicola and K. zhaosuensis are distributed in and area of Xinjiang, they could not endure the summer of subtropic climate of Dujiangyan city, Sichuan, while R. tsukushiensis and its hybrids crossed with K. gobicola and K. zhaosuensis could adapt to this condition.

Cytology: The data of chromosome pairings at metaphase I of PMCs in the two cross combinations are shown in
Table 4. The chromosome configurations are shown in Figures 1 to 10.

Both of the hybrids of K. gobicola x R. tsukushiensis, and K. zhaosuensis x R. tsukushiensis had 42 chromosomes. They had similiar meiotic pairing patterns. A large number of univalents were found in the two cross combinations, i. e., on average, 18.69 univalents per cell for K. gobicola x R. tsukushiensis, and 18.56 univalents per cell for K. zhaosuensis
x R. tsukushiensis. The average number of bivalents were 11.56 with the range of 7 to 14 for K. gobicola x R. tsukushiensis, and 11.73 with the range of 8 to 14 for K. zhaosuensis x R. tsukushiensis. A low frequencies of trivalents were also observed in both combinations with the average of 0.04 per cell. The chiasmata frequencies in K. gobicola x R. tsukushiensis and K. zhaosuensis x R. tsukushiensis were 17.44 and 17.41, respectively. The lagging chromosomes at anaphase I and II, and tetrads with micronuclei were observed in both combinations. Chromosome bridges at anaphase I and II were found in the hybrid of K. zhaosuensis x R. tukushiensis.

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