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Effect of Ploidy on Fertility and Heterosis in Pensacola Bahiagrass 1
Author(s) -
Burton Glenn W.,
Forbes Ian,
Jackson James
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
crop science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.76
H-Index - 147
eISSN - 1435-0653
pISSN - 0011-183X
DOI - 10.2135/cropsci1970.0011183x001000010025x
Subject(s) - ploidy , biology , paspalum notatum , heterosis , hybrid , botany , chromosome , genetics , gene
Diploid and tetraploid sectors isolated from seven mixoploid plants derived from Pensacola bahiagrass, Paspalum notatum var. saurae Parodi, seed treated with colchicine were selected to study the effect of ploidy on seed set and heterosis. Doubling the chromosome number did not improve the self‐fertility of the highly self‐incompatible diploid clones. Diploids set seed equally well in diploid or in diploid‐tetraploid polycrosses but tetraploids that set seed well in tetraploid polycrosses set less than half as much seed in etraploid‐diploid polycrosses. Single‐head diploid ✕ diploid and tetraploid ✕ tetraploid matings set nine and four times more seed, respectively, than diploid ✕ tetraploid or tetraploid ✕ diploid matings. Tetraploid ✕ tetraploid hybrids generally yielded less forage than diploid ✕ diploid hybrids involving the same genotypes. Otherwise, ploidy had little, if any, effect on the expression of heterosis.