Yoshihiko Furuta

Inheritance of the Trait of Male Sterility in Cryptomeria japonica

Matings of male-sterileC. japonica and fertile eliteC. japonica, as well as backcross seedlings of male-sterile trees, were carried out to clarify the genetic trait of male sterility of theC. japonica. The seeds from male-sterileC. japonica were germinated in an incubator and grown them in the greenhouse between 1994 and 1997. The seedlings were treated with 100 ppm gibberellin at early July 1994 and early July 1995 to promote the formation of male flowers. In the middle of January 1995, the male flowers of all seedlings were examined under the microscope to confirm the production of pollen. In January 1996, pollen did not developed in to the male flowers from the seedlings between the fertiled elite and backcrossC. japonica. In January 1997, all seedlings of eliteC. japonica produced pollen in their male flowers; however, pollen did not developed in 55 out of 120 backcrossed seedlings. This evidence suggests that the heredity pattern of male sterility inC. japonica is nuclear male sterility controlled by a pair of recessive genes.

Cytological and Genetical Studies on Male Sterility in Cryptomeria japonica D. Don

Genetic male sterility is a useful trait in plant breeding, especially in angiosperm crops such as corn, onion and carrot. We found a male sterile sugi (Cryptomeria japonica D. Don) tree in Toyama, Japan. Pollen of sugi is one of the major causes of pollinosis in Japan. We carried out this research in an attempt to make clear the characteristics and inheritance of this male sterility. Microsporogenesis of the male sterile tree proceeded meiosis, however, the microspores collapsed after they were separated from pollen tetrads in locules, resulting in complete male sterility. Most likely, ethylene evolution was responsible for male sterility expression. Full seed setting in the male sterile tree indicated normal macrosporogenesis. Seeds obtained from crossing between male sterile and normal lines showed relatively high level of germination and their seedlings grew vigorously. The somatic chromosome numbers of 241 germinated seeds, derived from the male sterile tree, were mostly 22, euploid. These results indicated that male sterile tree was different from other similar previously reported trees with low pollen fertility, resulting from triploid or trisomics. Probably, male sterility in sugi is either nuclear genetic male sterility or cytoplasmic male sterility.

The inheritance and chromosomal location of a gene for long glume in durum wheat

SummarySeveral near-isogenic lines of durum wheat cv. LD222 have been developed. These include a near-isogenic line carrying gene P and designated P-LD222. The P gene from Triticum polonicum determines a long empty outer glume. The objective of this study was to determine the inheritance and chromosomal location of the P gene. To determine the inheritance, P-LD222 was crossed to two chlorina mutants and to a near-isogenic line for the purple culm trait, Pc-LD222. Linkage of the P gene with the mutated gene in chlorina mutant CDd6 indicated that the P gene was located on chromosome 7A. P-LD222 was also crossed with durum cultivar Langdon (LDN) and the LDN D genome substitution lines, LDN 7D(7A) and LDN 7D(7B). Segregation for the long glume trait in the F2 of LDN/P-LD222 and LDN 7D(7B)/P-LD222 was normal (3:1) and indicated P gene was not on chromosome 7B. Significant deviation from a 3:1 in the F2 of LDN 7D(7A)/P-LD222 confirmed the location of P on chromosome 7A, as indicated by the linkage analysis.

Zymogram patterns of α-amylase isozymes inEthiopian tetraploid wheat landraces: insight into their evolutionaryhistory and evidence for gene flow

The variation for α-amylaseisozymes was analyzed in 71 tetraploid wheat (AABB genome)landraces from Ethiopia, including accessions of Triticumdicoccon Shrank, T.turgidum L., T.durum Desf., T.pyramidale Percival and T.aethiopicum Jakubz., by thin-layerpolyacrylamide gel isoelectric focusing. Four zymogram phenotypeswere obtained from all the materials studied. Except inT. dicoccon, however, thestandard pattern of the durum wheat variety, LD222, was predominant.T. dicoccon showed twozymogram types that differed for the absence or consistently weakactivity of band 18(α-Amy-B1)of the malt type. Band 1(α-Amy-B3)of the malt type was fixed in T.dicoccon and present in only 10% of thefree-threshing (FT) types. Generally, the resultsindicated that the variation forα-amylase isozymes in cultivatedtetraploid wheats, including landraces from secondary centers, is lowpossibly due to the founder effect or as a result of selection. Thedata were useful for inferences about the evolutionary history ofEthiopian wheat landraces. It is speculated thatT. dicoccon was the firstwheat to arrive in the Ethiopian highlands ca.5000 years ago. However, it is not known whether the present day FTEthiopian tetraploid wheat landraces are direct descendants ofT. dicoccon, or whetherthey were introduced independently. The clear differences inα-amylase zymogram patterns favor the latterhypothesis. However, the presence of band1 in some of the FT types indicated the occurrence of geneflow between the FT types and T.dicoccon, which may also explain thequantitative nature of spike threshability in these landraces.Possible implications for durum wheat breeding arediscussed.

Rediscovery of a diploid cytotype of Dasypyrum breviaristatum in Morocco

The chromosome numbers of a total of 273 Dasypyrumbreviaristatum plants sampled from 20 Moroccan and one Greek naturalpopulations were examined. 270 plants from all of the populations weretetraploids. Among them, 223 were eu-tetraploids with 28 chromosomes and 47 wereaneuploids with 25, 27 and 29 chromosomes. Besides, three plants were found tobe diploids among 16 plants from a population in the Moyen Atlas Mountains ofMorocco. This is the second report of a diploid cytotype ofD. breviaristatum since the firstcommunication in 1957. Morphologically, the diploids were similar to but smallerthan the tetraploids in plant height, spike length, spikelet number and leafepidermis cell size. However, it was not possible to distinguish between the twocytotypes based on those morphological characteristics alone. A distinctdifference was found between the two cytotypes only in the number of trichomeson the leaf surfaces. The karyotype of the diploid cytotype consisted of a pairof SAT-chromosomes, five pairs of metacentric and a pair of submetacentricchromosomes. Based on the similarity in karyotype and in plant morphologybetween the two cytotypes of D.breviaristatum, we suggest that the diploid cytotype is themost probable candidate for the ancestral form of the tetraploid cytotype.

Effect of genome and ploidy on photosynthesis of wheat

We assessed (1) the effects of addition and doses of the D genome from different sources and (2) the addition of either the A genome or the D genome on the photosynthesis of synthesized hexaploid wheats. On average, the increased doses of the D genome reduced photosynthesis, but the depression was dependent on the source of the D genome. Two accessions of Aegilops squarrosa had depressed photosynthetic rates, but not another accession of Ae. squarrosa. The D genome of cv. Thatcher did not contribute to depress photosynthetic rate. Triticum monococcum had considerably higher photosynthetic rates than Ae. squarrosa. However, addition of the A genome from T. monococcum did not increase the photosynthetic rates of hexaploids. Chlorophyll a : b ratio, functional photosystem II and the core complex of photosystem II did not account for the variation in photosynthetic rate among the genotypes studied. In our experiment, photosynthesis of polyploids was not dependent on photosynthesis rates of the donor genomes.

Exploration of genetic diversity among Xinjiang Triticum and Triticum polonicum by AFLP markers

Seventy-two XinjiangTriticum andTriticum polonicum accessions were subjected to AFLP analyses to discuss the origin ofTriticum petropavlovskyi. A total of 91 putative loci were produced by four primer combinations. Among them 56 loci were polymorphic, which is equivalent to 61.53 % of the total number of putative loci. Genetic diversity among 11T. petropavlovskyi accessions was narrow due to the lowest number (32) of polymorphic loci among the wheat species. Forty four polymorphic loci were found inT. aestivum andT. compactum, whereas the highest polymorphism was observed inT. polonicum. On the basis of the UPGMA clustering and PCO grouping and genetic similarity estimates from the AFLPs, we noted thatT. petropavlovskyi was more closely related to the Chinese accessions ofT. polonicum than toT. polonicum from other countries. Two accessions ofT. aestivum were grouped withT. petropavlovskyi in the UPGMA clustering. Both of them were similar toT. petropavlovskyi in respect of spike structure, i.e. the presence of awn, glume awn and also the presence of leaf pubescence. Six loci, which were commonly absent in ChineseT. polonicum, were also absent in almost all of theT. petropavlovskyi accessions. Findings of this study reduced the probability of an independent allopolyploidization event in the origin ofT. petropavlovskyi and indicated a greater degree of gene flow betweenT. aestivum andT. polonicum leading toT. petropavlovskyi. It is most likely that theP-gene ofT. petropavlovskyi hexaploid wheat was introduced fromT. polonicum toT. aestivum via a spontaneous introgression or breeding effort.

Comparative genetic diversity of Triticum aestivum–Triticum polonicum introgression lines with long glume and Triticum petropavlovskyi by AFLP-based assessment

AbstractsGenetic diversity of a set of introgression lines of Triticum aestivum L./T. polonicum L. with long glume and T. petropavlovskyi Udacz. et Migusch. were analyzed by Amplified Fragments Length Polymorphism (AFLP). Small-scale bulk breeding method was applied throughout until F6 generation to develop the introgression lines. Thirty-eight hexapolid F7 plants with long glume phenotype and their parents were subjected to AFLP analysis by four primer combinations. A total of 47 polymorphic loci were detected between the parents, 15 of them were introgressed across the 38 lines. It was hypothesized that approximately 50% of A or B genomes associated polymorphic loci were introgressed. The variation of introgression lines was limited within the diversity between their parents, T. aestivum L. cv. Novosibirskaya 67 (N67) and T. polonicum L. cv. IC12196. N67 was closer to 38 introgression lines than that of IC12196. The UPGMA cluster and principal coordinate analysis (PCO) grouping showed 0.84 to 0.98 similarity values between N67 and the introgression lines. Eleven T. petropavlovskyi accessions were distinguished from introgression lines with UPGMA clusters and PCO groupings, and T. petropavlovskyi was located between the introgressions lines and IC12196. Several introgression lines resembled with T. petropavlovskyi for awning and glume length. The genetic variation among 38 introgression lines was much wider than that of T. petropavlovskyi. We concluded that T. petropavlovskyi was established by intensive selection of hybrid between T. aestivum/T. polonicum.

Effects of substituted D genome chromosomes on photosynthetic rate of durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var. durum)

SummaryA durum wheat cultivar Langdon (LDN) and fourteen disomic D genome chromosome substitution lines of Langdon, where A or B genome chromosomes were replaced with homoeologous D genome chromosomes of Chinese Spring (CS), were used to assess the compensatory effect of the D genome chromosomes on photosynthetic rates at tetraploid level. The LDN 1D(1B) and LDN 3D(3B) lines showed significantly higher photosynthetic rates than ‘Langdon’, whereas LDN 1D(1A) and LDN 3D(3A) lines were not greatly different from ‘Langdon’. It appears that chromosomes 1B and 3B decrease photosynthesis. This suggests the differentiation of the effects on the photosynthesis within the first and third homoeologous groups. Substitution with the 2D chromosomes did not compensate the effects of either 2A or 2B chromosomes as it reduced photosynthetic rate compared to plant with either chromosomes 2A or 2B. Tetra CS had a higher photosynthetic rate than CS and Penta CS. The photosynthetic rate of CS was similar to that of Penta CS, which lacked one set of D genome. The results suggest that it may be possible to increase photosynthesis, if both sets of the D genome were entirely removed from hexaploid wheat. However, it is difficult to conclude that the lower rate of photosynthesis of the hexaploids was mainly attributable to D genome chromosome effects, because we did not find a dose dependent effect of D genome. Homoeologous differentiation of chromosomes may be involved in photosynthesis.

Evaluation of Genetic Variation in High Molecular Weight Glutenin Subunits of Seed Storage Protein Using Landraces of Common Wheat from Pakistan

SDS-PAGE was used to determine the variation in high molecular weight glutenin subunits (HMW-GS) alleles present in 170 landraces of common wheat from Sindh, Balochistan and NWFP in Pakistan. Three alleles for Glu-A1, six alleles for Glu-B1 and four alleles for Glu-D1 were detected. These included three new alleles, namely Glu-B1e, Glu-B1h and Glu-D1n, which had not previously been found in landraces of Pakistani wheat. Furthermore, Glu-D1m and Glu-D1n, which are considered to be endemic alleles in Pakistan and Afghanistan, were both detected from Balochistan. Twenty genotypes were identified based on combinations of alleles at the three Glu-1 loci. The present study showed that Pakistani landraces of common wheat have maintained a broad diversity of HMW-GS alleles, and that they may serve as genetic resources to improve wheat varieties adapted to Pakistani climatic and edaphic conditions.