Iowa State University research worker may have solve a long - standing challenge assort with the accelerated development of pure genetic lines .
Siddique Aboobucker , research scientist in scientific agriculture , maintain a five - week - honest-to-goodness haploid Arabidopsis ps mutant flora in the flowering degree . The computer screen shows magnify figure of a bloom , stained on a microscopic microscope slide . Anthers , virile parts of the flower , look like mushrooms on the screen , and pollen grains appear like tiny pearls . Photo by Whitney Baxter , Iowa State University .
The exercise of “ duplicate haploid ” ( DH ) genetics has become one of the introductory technologies corroborate innovative Indian corn breeding . However , DH technology has challenge , as well as advantages . First , it requires the creation of “ haploid ” plants that carry only a single , enate genome . The haploid plant ’s undivided genome is then double through a chemical procedure that accelerates the evolution of genetically pure inbred lines .
One of DH technology ’s major bottlenecks is that haploid manlike flowers are usually infertile . This problem call for exposing the seedling to the toxic chemical substance colchicine , which spurs genome doubling and returns fertility to the male flower . The process is labor- and price - intensive .
inquiry published recently inNature Plantsshares word of a mutation the scientists get word that restore male fertility in haploids without the habit of colchicine . The study was behave by Siddique I. Aboobucker , a research scientist in agronomy , with Thomas Lübberstedt , Frey Chair in Agronomy and director of the Raymond F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding , and former agronomy graduate student Liming Zhou .
They demonstrated that exploiting variation that qualify the positioning of the spindle mechanism during the plant procreative phase , have intercourse as meiosis , can touch on the male fertility of haploid plants .
The spindle chemical mechanism helps keep cell part on cart track . During normal reduction division , in regular “ diploid ” industrial plant that contain two sets of chromosomes , the spike are arranged in vertical dyad that line up easily . In haploid flora , the chromosomes are unequally mete out during electric cell division , leading to high pace of infertility during the next phases of breeding .
To address this trouble , Aboobucker had an stirring the team agreed was worth investigating . They hypothesized that a circle of inherited plant abnormalcy know as parallel spindle mutants or “ ps mutants ” that change the mandril to a parallel rather of vertical position during meiosis could meliorate virile fertility in haploid . They tested the idea on Arabidopsis thaliana , a model research flora often used as a forerunner to work in corn and several other crop mintage .
It worked – the haploid mutant plants grow , and most were fertile . The results support their idea that the inadequate lineup of spindle fibers during a critical phase of meiosis in the haploid males can be overcome by exploiting the mutants ’ trend to cause a more horizontal spindle formation .
“ Using this mutation to overcome the male fertility rate problem in haploid plants has peachy hope to master the imagination - intensive protocols presently in place for artificial ( chemical ) genome double method acting to obtain DH lines , ” Lübberstedt say .
He gives most of the credit to Aboobucker , who led the project to find a answer to this long - time mystifier of male haploid infertility .
“ I ’m start to realize this is a big deal , ” Aboobucker say . “ The answer from colleagues around the world since our article was published last month has been a little overwhelming . ”
Lübberstedt and Aboobucker believe the good mutations they ’ve identified can be applied , with some modification , to corn and other crops . Exploring this potentiality is one of the next projects on their horizon .
The undertaking is hold up by the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research in a partnership that involves six plant breeding companies .
Source : www.cals.iastate.edu
