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ARS Home » Midwest Area » St. Paul, Minnesota » Plant Science Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #93573
Title: CHARACTERIZATION OF MAIZE CHROMOSOME RETENTION IN DEVELOPING EMBRYOS AND PLANTS FROM OAT X MAIZE CROSSES

Author
item CHEN, GANG - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
item ANANIEV, EVGUENI - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
item VALES, ISABEL - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
item RIERA-LIZARAZU, OSCAR - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
item Rines, Howard
item PHILLIPS, RONALD - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

Submitted to: American Oat Workers Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/27/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: When the oat cultivar Starter was pollinated with maize, about 20% of the florets developed embryos. However, only 12% of the rescued embryos germinated and only about half of those survived to maturity. Maize chromosome identification with maize microsatellite (SSR) probes showed that all plants that ceased growth at an early stage retained more than one emaize chromosome, 35% of the surviving plants retained one to two maize chromosomes, and the remaining 65% surviving plants retained no maize chromosomes. The retention of multiple maize chromosomes apparently retards embryo germination and seedling growth. In attempts to obtain faster and more complete maize chromosome elimination during embryo development, the effects of different temperatures were tested on the chromosome constitution of young embryos in oat x maize hybridization. Oat x maize crosses were made followed by a treatment of 10 mg/L 2,4-D solution to florets two days after pollination. After 2,4-D application, sets of plant were put in growth chambers under temperatures of 16 C/14 C (day/night), 20 C/18 C, or 25 C/23 C. Six days after pollination embryos were harvested and analyzed for chromosome constitution by an in situ hybridization technique using fluorescein labeled maize total genomic DNA as the probe. All of the embryos from the different temperature treatments at this stage were chimeric in terms of maize chromosome retention. In this initial test of 5 embryos per treatment, maize chromatin was detected in 93.1% of the embryo cells in the high temperature treatment, 47.9% in the middle temperature treatment, and 27% in the low temperature treatment. These results indicate that low temperature leads to less maize chromosome retention during embryo development.