Polyploid crape myrtle was produced through hybridizing with 2n gametes induced by high-temperature
摘要
To efficiently produce polyploid Lagerstroemia, the development process of the female and male gametes of Lagerstroemia cultivar ‘Whit III’ was observed. It was found that when the diameter of the flower bud was from 5.1 to 5.6 mm, the length of the anther was from 0.8 to 1.2 mm, the color of the anther was light yellow-green, and the diameter of the ovary was from 1.5 to 2.0 mm, both the microspores and megaspores were in the meiosis period. Subsequently, the female gametes were in the embryo sac development stage, with embryo sacs reaching maturity when the flower bud diameter was 7.0 mm. The inflorescences with the most flower buds in this stage were treated by high temperature to induce 2n gametes, and the optimal treatment for producing 2n pollen was 44 °C for 6 h, with 2n pollen rate of 66.03% on the flowers that opened on the 11th day after high-temperature treatment. The Lagerstroemia species and cultivars were pollinated with high-temperature treated pollen, resulting in 2.38% triploid offspring and 0.52% tetraploid offspring. The high-temperature (46 °C for 8 h) treated Lagerstroemia flowers were pollinated with normal pollen, producing triploid offspring with the highest rate of 7.28%. In total, 38 triploid offspring and two tetraploid offspring were successfully obtained, and the tetraploid offspring showed gigantism. In contrast, the triploid offspring did not differ significantly from diploid plants in phenotype. In our study, we successfully established a technique to produce sexually polyploid Lagerstroemia plants by inducing 2n gametes by high-temperature treatment for the first time and providing elite materials for breeding stress-resistant Lagerstroemia cultivars.