Open AccessFecundity of transgenic wild–crop hybrids of Cucurbita pepo (Cucurbitaceae): implications for crop‐to‐wild gene flow
Author(s) -
Spencer Lawrence J.,
Snow Allison A.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
heredity
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.441
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1365-2540
pISSN - 0018-067X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2540.2001.t01-1-00890.x
Subject(s) - biology , cucurbita pepo , hybrid , fecundity , crop , introgression , squash , cultivar , gene flow , cucurbitaceae , cucurbita , botany , agronomy , horticulture , gene , population , genetic variation , genetics , demography , sociology
Hybridization between crops and their weedy or wild relatives is an area of concern because the widespread use of genetically engineered crops may allow novel, beneficial transgenes to enter nearby populations. We compared fitness components of wild Cucurbita pepo from Arkansas, USA, with wild–crop hybrids derived from yellow squash (a cultivar of C. pepo with transgenic resistance to two viruses). Wild and hybrid progeny were grown in agricultural fields in Arkansas (1996–98) and Ohio (1996) in six similar experiments. Cross types (wild and hybrid) did not differ significantly in seedling survival, which exceeded 85% in all cases. In Ohio, where more detailed observations were made, hybrid plants produced 41% as many male flowers, 21% as many female flowers, and 28% as many seeds as wild plants. At all sites, flowering periods of the two cross types overlapped extensively. Putative virus symptoms were more common in wild plants than in hybrids. Lifetime fecundity varied considerably among sites and years. The average fecundity of hybrids ranged from 453 to 4497 seeds per plant and represented 15% – 53% of the numbers of seeds produced by wild plants in the same experiments. These results suggest that the F 1 generation does not represent a strong barrier to the introgression of neutral or beneficial crop genes into free‐living populations of C. pepo .