Author
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PEREIRA, TELMA - ISU |
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LERSTEN, NELS - ISU |
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PALMER, REID |
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Submitted to: American Journal of Botany
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 9/11/1996 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Soybean plants for commercial production are male fertile and female fertile and produce many seed per plant. Changes in the reproductive biology of the plant can produce complete sterility or partial sterility. Plants that are genetically male sterile but completely female fertile have been used in plant breeding to produce F1 hybrid seed. Partial male-sterile plants are not of use commercially. Few female (complete or partial-sterile) plants have been described, which most likely reflects the technical complexity of identifying and characterizing the abnormalities. In a previous paper, we described the use of laser microscopy to optical section female tissue in soybean. In this report, we describe genetically and microscopically a partial-female sterile (mutant) soybean plant. The mutant is inherited as a single factor recessive trait typical of many traits in soybean. Thus this partial female sterile trait can be transmitted through the female (and male) parent in cross-pollinations. The microscopic observations indicate that the young embryo fails to get nutrients from the 'nurse tissue' surrounding the embryo. The embryo starves to death. This partial-female sterile mutant is useful to compare (contrast) normal female development with abnormal female development in soybean. The results will be most useful to those studying soybean genetics and plant breeders. Technical Abstract: Soybean female partial-sterile mutant 1 (PS-1) was recovered from a gene tagging study. Our objectives were to study 1) inheritance, 2) linkage, 3) allelism, and 4) reproductive biology. For inheritance and linkage tests, PS-1 was crossed to flower color mutant Harosoy-w4 and to chlorophyll-deficient mutant CD-1. For allelism tests, reciprocal crosses were made with PS-1 and three independently derived partial-sterile mutants PS-1, PS-2, and PS-3. The PS-1 mutant is a single recessive gene and is inherited in a 3:1 ratio. Linkage tests indicated that the gene for partial sterility in PS-1 is not linked either to the w4 locus or to the CD-1 locus. Allelism tests showed that the gene in PS-1 is nonallelic to the gene in PS-2, PS-3, and PS-4. Investigations of developing and mature pollen indicated no differences in morphology, stainability, or fluorescence between normal and mutant. The PS-1 mutant is completely male fertile. Confocal scanning laser microscopy was used to determine that early embryo abortion in PS-1 is due indirectly to abnormal migration of the fused polar nucleus, which prevented it from being fertilized. Subsequent absence of endosperm development leads directly to abortion of the proembryo. |
