In vitro selection and characterization of buffelgrass somaclones with different responses to water stress

EDGARDO CARLON; EXEQUIEL TOMMASINO; ELIANA LÓPEZ COLOMBA; ANDREA RIBOTTA; MARIANA QUIROGA; SABRINA GRIFFA; KARINA GRUNBERG

PLANT CELL TISSUE AND ORGAN CULTURE

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2017

0167-6857

Buffelgrass is a forage grass that reproducesmainly by apomixis. In species with this reproductionmode, in  vitro selection allows the incorporation of alternativesin a breeding program. The aims were to definea protocol for in  vitro selection, provide a molecular andmorphological characterization of the progenies of regeneratedplants, and evaluate them under water stress conditions.In the embryogenic callus induction medium(IM), the highest values of the variables fresh weight ofembryogenic calli, proportion of embryogenic calli andnumber of regenerated seedlings (NRS) were obtained inthe 25 mM mannitol treatment. The remaining concentrationsof the osmotic agent (50, 75, 100 and 150 mM) hada negative effect on these variables. In the regenerationmedium (RM), NRS was reduced at all mannitol concentrations.When embryogenic calli were induced and seedlingswere regenerated maintaining mannitol concentrationsin IM and RM, the highest NRS values were recordedat 25  mM mannitol. In  vitro regenerated seedlings transplantedto an experimental plot exhibited different morphologicalcharacteristics from those of the anther donorplant. ISSR primers detected 22% of polymorphic bandsand divergence between 0.20 and 0.37 in in vitro regeneratedplants. Finally, water stress assays confirmed that S1progenies exhibited a differential behavior from that of theparent material. Under 100 mM of mannitol used as selectionpressure in IM or in both IM and RM, S1 progenies oftwo regenerated materials had higher height, fresh weightand dry weight at the end of water stress assay.