New Zealand Journal of Botany abstracts

---

Production of tetraploid hybrids between Ornithopus pinnatus and 0. sativus using embryo culture

Elizabeth G. Williams and G. De Lautour

Grasslands Division, DSIR, Private Bag, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Abstract Four sterile diploid interspecific hybrids were obtained by pollinating precociously exserted stigmas of Ornithopus pinnatus with pollen from O. sativus while buds were still closed, and culturing the resulting hybrid embryos in vitro with nurse endosperm. Doubling the chromosome number of one hybrid by treatment of shoot tips with colchicine gave partial restoration of fertility. In vitro embryo culture was necessary to raise naturally selfed F2, F3, and F4 generations as endosperm development was impaired. However, occasional F4 seeds showed almost normal endosperm development, suggesting that in situ maturation of seeds may be achieved in future generations. The project was aimed at combining the high productivity of O. sativus with the prostrate habit, hard-seededness, and foliar tannin production of O. pinnatus. F3 and F4 individuals derived from a single tetraploid F: plant showed a combination of the leafiness of O. sativus with a trailing habit more like that of O. pinnatus and variation in foliar tannin content.

Keywords hybridisation; Ornithopus; embryo culture; pasture legumes

Received 29 May 1980
New Zealand Journal of Botany, 1981, Vol. 19:23-30

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (2875K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

---

This year's abstracts | Journal home page | All abstracts | Publishing home page