Meiosis in Plant Interspecific Hybrids and Polyploids

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Genetics, Genomics and Biotechnology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2022) | Viewed by 17339

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Departamento de Genética, Fisiología y Microbiología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad Complutense, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: plant genetics and cytogenetics; meiosis; triticeae; wheat

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Guest Editor
Dpto. de Mejora Genética Vegetal, Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible, Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Avenida Menéndez Pidal s/n. Campus Alameda del Obispo, 14004 Córdoba, Spain
Interests: plant breeding; meiosis; chromosome pairing; chromosome dynamics
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Polyploidy is pervasive and represents a major mechanism of speciation in plants. More than 50% of extant angiosperms are polyploids and many lineages show evidence of ancient genome duplications. In addition, many crops, such as wheat, tobacco, potato, cotton, oat, peanut, canola, leek, strawberry or sugar cane are polyploids. According to their genome composition, polyploids have been classified into two types: autopolyploids, which have three or more copies of the same genome, and allopolyploids, which originated after hybridization between related diploid species followed by chromosome doubling. The polyploid condition implies that each chromosome has two or more potential partners to undergo synapsis and recombination during meiosis. Meiotic programs of polyploid species are often in the focus of research trying to understand how these organisms overcome the chromosome competitive behavior in order to produce balanced gametes. The diploid-like meiotic behavior of polyploid wheats controlled by the homoeologous pairing suppressor gene Ph1 is a good model to understand how the pairing partner is sorted. However, alternative strategies adopted in other polyploids need to be analyzed. Two main reasons underpin the study of meiosis in interspecific hybrids. One is to shed light on the mechanisms underlying chromosome duplication to form allopolyploids, the other is that hybridization can be used to transfer genes controlling useful agronomical traits from wild species to crops. This Special Issue will cover research works concerning the origin of polyploid species, the adaptive modification of their meiotic behavior to ensure balanced chromosome segregations, and the use of induced homoeologous recombination in interspecific gene transfer with implications in breeding related programs.

Prof. Tomás Naranjo
Dr. Pilar Prieto
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • autopolyploids
  • allopolyploids
  • cytological diploidization
  • chromosome sorting
  • homoeologous recombination
  • gene transfer

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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21 pages, 4593 KiB  
Article
Location and Identification on Chromosome 3B of Bread Wheat of Genes Affecting Chiasma Number
by Benoit Darrier, Isabelle Colas, Hélène Rimbert, Frédéric Choulet, Jeanne Bazile, Aurélien Sortais, Eric Jenczewski and Pierre Sourdille
Plants 2022, 11(17), 2281; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11172281 - 31 Aug 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2542
Abstract
Understanding meiotic crossover (CO) variation in crops like bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is necessary as COs are essential to create new, original and powerful combinations of genes for traits of agronomical interest. We cytogenetically characterized a set of wheat aneuploid lines [...] Read more.
Understanding meiotic crossover (CO) variation in crops like bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is necessary as COs are essential to create new, original and powerful combinations of genes for traits of agronomical interest. We cytogenetically characterized a set of wheat aneuploid lines missing part or all of chromosome 3B to identify the most influential regions for chiasma formation located on this chromosome. We showed that deletion of the short arm did not change the total number of chiasmata genome-wide, whereas this latter was reduced by ~35% while deleting the long arm. Contrary to what was hypothesized in a previous study, deletion of the long arm does not disturb the initiation of the synaptonemal complex (SC) in early meiotic stages. However, progression of the SC is abnormal, and we never observed its completion when the long arm is deleted. By studying six different deletion lines (missing different parts of the long arm), we revealed that at least two genes located in both the proximal (C-3BL2-0.22) and distal (3BL7-0.63-1.00) deletion bins are involved in the control of chiasmata, each deletion reducing the number of chiasmata by ~15%. We combined sequence analyses of deletion bins with RNA-Seq data derived from meiotic tissues and identified a set of genes for which at least the homoeologous copy on chromosome 3B is expressed and which are involved in DNA processing. Among these genes, eight (CAP-E1/E2, DUO1, MLH1, MPK4, MUS81, RTEL1, SYN4, ZIP4) are known to be involved in the recombination pathway. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Meiosis in Plant Interspecific Hybrids and Polyploids)
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11 pages, 738 KiB  
Article
Assessing the Heat Tolerance of Meiosis in Spanish Landraces of Tetraploid Wheat Triticum turgidum
by Tomás Naranjo, Nieves Cuñado and Juan Luis Santos
Plants 2022, 11(13), 1661; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11131661 - 23 Jun 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1615
Abstract
Heat stress alters the number and distribution of meiotic crossovers in wild and cultivated plant species. Hence, global warming may have a negative impact on meiosis, fertility, and crop productions. Assessment of germplasm collections to identify heat-tolerant genotypes is a priority for future [...] Read more.
Heat stress alters the number and distribution of meiotic crossovers in wild and cultivated plant species. Hence, global warming may have a negative impact on meiosis, fertility, and crop productions. Assessment of germplasm collections to identify heat-tolerant genotypes is a priority for future crop improvement. Durum wheat, Triticum turgidum, is an important cultivated cereal worldwide and given the genetic diversity of the durum wheat Spanish landraces core collection, we decided to analyse the heat stress effect on chiasma formation in a sample of 16 landraces of T. turgidum ssp. turgidum and T. turgidum ssp. durum, from localities with variable climate conditions. Plants of each landrace were grown at 18–22 °C and at 30 °C during the premeiotic temperature-sensitive stage. The number of chiasmata was not affected by heat stress in three genotypes, but decreased by 0.3–2 chiasmata in ten genotypes and more than two chiasmata in the remaining three ones. Both thermotolerant and temperature-sensitive genotypes were found in the two subspecies, and in some of the agroecological zones studied, which supports that genotypes conferring a heat tolerant meiotic phenotype are not dependent on subspecies or geographical origin. Implications of heat adaptive genotypes in future research and breeding are discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Meiosis in Plant Interspecific Hybrids and Polyploids)
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17 pages, 4981 KiB  
Article
Developmental Differences between Anthers of Diploid and Autotetraploid Rice at Meiosis
by Tianya Ku, Huihui Gu, Zishuang Li, Baoming Tian, Zhengqing Xie, Gongyao Shi, Weiwei Chen, Fang Wei and Gangqiang Cao
Plants 2022, 11(13), 1647; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11131647 - 22 Jun 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2178
Abstract
Newly synthetic autotetraploid rice shows lower pollen fertility and seed setting rate relative to diploid rice, which hinders its domestication and breeding. In this study, cytological analysis showed that at meiosis I stage, an unbalanced segregation of homologous chromosomes, occurred as well as [...] Read more.
Newly synthetic autotetraploid rice shows lower pollen fertility and seed setting rate relative to diploid rice, which hinders its domestication and breeding. In this study, cytological analysis showed that at meiosis I stage, an unbalanced segregation of homologous chromosomes, occurred as well as an early degeneration of tapetal cells in autotetraploid rice. We identified 941 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in anthers (meiosis I), including 489 upregulated and 452 downregulated proteins. The DEPs identified were related to post-translational modifications such as protein ubiquitination. These modifications are related to chromatin remodeling and homologous recombination abnormalities during meiosis. In addition, proteins related to the pentose phosphate pathway (BGIOSGA016558, BGIOSGA022166, and BGIOSGA028743) were downregulated. This may be related to the failure of autotetraploid rice to provide the energy needed for cell development after polyploidization, which then ultimately leads to the early degradation of the tapetum. Moreover, we also found that proteins (BGIOSGA017346 and BGIOSGA027368) related to glutenin degradation were upregulated, indicating that a large loss of glutenin cannot provide nutrition for the development of tapetum, resulting in early degradation of tapetum. Taken together, these evidences may help to understand the differences in anther development between diploid and autotetraploid rice during meiosis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Meiosis in Plant Interspecific Hybrids and Polyploids)
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15 pages, 6489 KiB  
Article
Bouquet Formation Failure in Meiosis of F1 Wheat–Rye Hybrids with Mitotic-Like Division
by Olga G. Silkova, Dina B. Loginova, Anastasia A. Zhuravleva and Vladimir K. Shumny
Plants 2022, 11(12), 1582; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11121582 - 15 Jun 2022
Viewed by 2017
Abstract
Bouquet formation is believed to be involved in initiating homologous chromosome pairings in meiosis. A bouquet is also formed in the absence of chromosome pairing, such as in F1 wheat–rye hybrids. In some hybrids, meiosis is characterized by a single, mitotic-like division [...] Read more.
Bouquet formation is believed to be involved in initiating homologous chromosome pairings in meiosis. A bouquet is also formed in the absence of chromosome pairing, such as in F1 wheat–rye hybrids. In some hybrids, meiosis is characterized by a single, mitotic-like division that leads to the formation of unreduced gametes. In this study, FISH with the telomere and centromere-specific probe, and immunoFISH with ASY1, CENH3 and rye subtelomere repeat pSc200 were employed to perform a comparative analysis of early meiotic prophase nuclei in four combinations of wheat–rye hybrids. One of these, with disomic rye chromosome 2R, is known to undergo normal meiosis, and here, 78.9% of the meiocytes formed a normal-appearing telomere bouquet and rye subtelomeres clustered in 83.2% of the meiocytes. In three combinations with disomic rye chromosomes 1R, 5R and 6R, known to undergo a single division of meiosis, telomeres clustered in 11.4%, 44.8% and 27.6% of the meiocytes, respectively. In hybrids with chromosome 1R, rye subtelomeres clustered in 12.19% of the meiocytes. In the remaining meiocytes, telomeres and subtelomeres were scattered along the nucleus circumference, forming large and small groups. We conclude that in wheat–rye hybrids with mitotic-like meiosis, chromosome behavior is altered already in the early prophase. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Meiosis in Plant Interspecific Hybrids and Polyploids)
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13 pages, 2206 KiB  
Article
Behavior of Centromeres during Restitution of the First Meiotic Division in a Wheat–Rye Hybrid
by Adam J. Lukaszewski
Plants 2022, 11(3), 337; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11030337 - 27 Jan 2022
Viewed by 3022
Abstract
In first division restitution (FDR)-type meiosis, univalents congregate on the metaphase I plate and separate sister chromatids in an orderly fashion, producing dyads with somatic chromosome numbers. The second meiotic division is abandoned. The separation of sister chromatids requires separation of otherwise fused [...] Read more.
In first division restitution (FDR)-type meiosis, univalents congregate on the metaphase I plate and separate sister chromatids in an orderly fashion, producing dyads with somatic chromosome numbers. The second meiotic division is abandoned. The separation of sister chromatids requires separation of otherwise fused sister centromeres and a bipolar attachment to the karyokinetic spindle. This study analyzed packaging of sister centromeres in pollen mother cells (PMCs) in a wheat–rye F1 hybrid with a mixture of standard reductional meiosis and FDR. No indication of sister centromere separation before MI was observed; such separation was clearly only visible in univalents placed on the metaphase plate itself, and only in PMCs undergoing FDR. Even in the FDR, PMCs univalents off the plate retained fused centromeres. Both the orientation and configuration of univalents suggest that some mechanism other than standard interactions with the karyokinetic spindle may be responsible for placing univalents on the plate, at which point sister centromeres are separated and normal amphitelic interaction with the spindle is established. At this point it is not clear at all what univalent delivery mechanism may be at play in the FDR. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Meiosis in Plant Interspecific Hybrids and Polyploids)
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Review

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18 pages, 1213 KiB  
Review
Advances and Perspectives for Polyploidy Breeding in Orchids
by Pablo Bolaños-Villegas and Fure-Chyi Chen
Plants 2022, 11(11), 1421; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11111421 - 27 May 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4532
Abstract
The orchid market is a dynamic horticultural business in which novelty and beauty command high prices. The two main interests are the development of flowers, from the miniature to the large and showy, and their fragrance. Overall organ size might be modified by [...] Read more.
The orchid market is a dynamic horticultural business in which novelty and beauty command high prices. The two main interests are the development of flowers, from the miniature to the large and showy, and their fragrance. Overall organ size might be modified by doubling the chromosome number, which can be accomplished by careful study of meiotic chromosome disjunction in hybrids or species. Meiosis is the process in which diploid (2n) pollen mother cells recombine their DNA sequences and then undergo two rounds of division to give rise to four haploid (n) cells. Thus, by interfering in chromosome segregation, one can induce the development of diploid recombinant cells, called unreduced gametes. These unreduced gametes may be used for breeding polyploid progenies with enhanced fertility and large flower size. This review provides an overview of developments in orchid polyploidy breeding placed in the large context of meiotic chromosome segregation in the model plants Arabidopsis thaliana and Brassica napus to facilitate molecular translational research and horticultural innovation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Meiosis in Plant Interspecific Hybrids and Polyploids)
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