Unexpected inheritance pattern of Erianthus arundinaceus chromosomes in the intergeneric progeny between Saccharum spp. and Erianthus arundinaceus

PLoS One. 2014 Oct 13;9(10):e110390. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0110390. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Erianthus arundinaceus is a valuable source of agronomic traits for sugarcane improvement such as ratoonability, biomass, vigor, tolerance to drought and water logging, as well as resistance to pests and disease. To investigate the introgression of the E. arundinaceus genome into sugarcane, five intergeneric F1 hybrids between S. officinarum and E. arundinaceus and 13 of their BC1 progeny were studied using the genomic in situ hybridization (GISH) technique. In doing so, we assessed the chromosome composition and chromosome transmission in these plants. All F1 hybrids were aneuploidy, containing either 28 or 29 E. arundinaceus chromosomes. The number of E. arundinaceus chromosomes in nine of the BC1 progeny was less than or equal to 29. Unexpectedly, the number of E. arundinaceus chromosomes in the other four BC1 progeny was above 29, which was more than in their F1 female parents. This is the first cytogenetic evidence for an unexpected inheritance pattern of E. arundinaceus chromosomes in sugarcane. We pointed to several mechanisms that may be involved in generating more than 2n gametes in the BC1 progeny. Furthermore, the implication of these results for sugarcane breeding programs was discussed.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Aneuploidy
  • Chromosomes, Plant*
  • Hybridization, Genetic
  • In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence
  • Inheritance Patterns*
  • Models, Genetic
  • Saccharum / genetics*

Grants and funding

This work was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (30671329), the earmarked fund for the Modern Agriculture Technology of China (CARS-20-1-5). This project is also supported by Guangxi Natural Science Foundation (2014GXNSFFA118002). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.