DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERISTICS OF TRIPLE SPECIES HYBRIDS USED TO TRANSFER RENIFORM NEMATODE RESISTANCE FROM GOSSYPIUM LONGICALYX TO GOSSYPIUM HIRSUTUM

Authors: Bell, Alois - Al; Robinson, Arin

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/8/2004
Publication Date: 2/21/2004
Citation: Bell, A.A., Robinson, A.F. 2004. Development and characteristics of triple species hybrids used to transfer reniform nematode resistance from Gossypium longicalyx to Gossypium hirsutum. Proceedings of Beltwide Cotton Conferences. p. 422-426.

Interpretive Summary: There are many kinds of microscopic worms called nematodes that feed on the roots of cotton and other crops, debilitating the plants and markedly decreasing yields. The direct losses to U.S. cotton farmers caused by nematodes each year are estimated by the National Cotton Council to exceed $300,000,000. The reniform nematode is one of the most important nematodes on cotton in the U.S. Some varieties of crop plants are resistant to one or more kinds of nematodes, allowing them to be grown successfully in fields where those nematodes occur. Unfortunately, no varieties of cotton are resistant to the reniform nematode and all suffer considerable damage when grown in soil where the nematode is present in high numbers. The purpose of this study was to obtain and evaluate hybrids made by crossing the kind of cotton that farmers grow with a wild plant from Africa that is immune to the reniform nematode. Plant hybrids usually are sterile and cannot be used to obtain seed, so a second, very important objective of the study was to make a special type of hybrid, with the same number and type of chromosomes as normal cotton, so that it could be crossed with normal cotton to produce normal cotton seed carrying the nematode immunity trait. The paper tells how such hybrids were made by making crosses among three different wild relatives of cotton while treating flower buds when appropriate with a special substance called colchicine. The paper also describes the stems, leaves, flowers, and growth characteristics of the hybrids and shows that the resistance trait is inherited when these hybrids are crossed with normal cotton. This work is an important first step toward developing new nematode-resistant varieties of cotton that farmers will be able to grow in fields where the reniform nematode occurs.

Technical Abstract: Two triple-species hybrids were developed by a protocol designed to achieve a tetraploid plant (52 chromosomes) containing one complete set of 13 F genome chromosomes from Gossypium longicalyx, with the goal of backcrossing the hybrids with G. hirsutum to introgress genes from the F genome into Upland cotton. The genes of greatest interest were those conferring immunity to the reniform nematode, an important trait found in no other Gossypium species. The strategy was to substitute an F genome set of chromosomes for an A genome set in a triple- species hybrid of G. hirsutum × G. longicalyx × G. amourianum (HLA), and for a D genome set in a triple-species hybrid of G. hirsutum × G. herbaceum × G. longicalyx (HHL). The HLA hybrid was formed by crossing G. armourianum pollen onto a G. hirustum 'TM-1' (Deltapine 14) × G. longicalyx hexaploid created by Dr. Meta Brown. The HHL hybrid was formed by crossing G. longicalyx pollen onto a G. hirsutum 'Tamcot CAMD-E' × G. herbaceum hexaploid. Both hexaploids were obtained by colchicine treatment of vegetative buds of their triploid progenitors. The hybrids retained R. reniformis immunity. Nematodes infected roots but neither hybrid supported normal development or egg mass production by parasitic females on roots, and nematode populations in soil ultimately dropped to undetectable levels when hybrids were grown in pots inoculated with nematodes. The hybrids exhibit various parental traits related to growth habit and flower morphology. Both hybrids are male sterile but flowers can be pollinated by G. hirsutum to obtain backcross progeny, with six times as many viable embryos obtained from HLA as HHL. More than 1,100 progeny have been obtained from the hybrids, with ca. 900 characterized in relation to fertility and (or) nematode resistance. Because a small number of nematodes from the primary inoculum usually survive until the termination of nematode resistance assays, a value of 1% of the nematodes observed either in soil or on roots of the susceptible 'Deltapine 16' control was operationally defined as immunity. Among 66 BC1 progeny of HLA with various male parents, 9 were scored as immune and 8 as either immune or highly resistant. Among BC1 populations obtained by crosses of 'Acala NemX' pollen onto HLA (603 progeny) and HHL (21 progeny), 106 and 4 plants, respectively, were male-fertile with 12 and 1 plant, respectively, scored as immune to R. reniformis. Immunity was pollen-transferred to one-fourth (26%) of progeny within second and third G. hirsutum backcross generations from 'Delta and Pineland 458' bolls, suggesting inheritance by a single dominant gene.