Leaf Organogenesis Improves Recovery of Solid Polyploid Shoots from Chimeric Southern Highbush Blueberry

Interspecific and intersectional crosses have introduced valuable genetic traits for blueberry (<i>Vaccinium</i> sect. <i>Cyanococcus</i>) cultivar improvement. Introgression from <i>Vaccinium</i> species at the diploid, tetraploid, and hexaploid levels has been f...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Emily Walter, Akshaya Biswal, Peggy Ozias-Akins, Ye Chu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-06-01
Series:BioTech
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6284/14/2/48
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Interspecific and intersectional crosses have introduced valuable genetic traits for blueberry (<i>Vaccinium</i> sect. <i>Cyanococcus</i>) cultivar improvement. Introgression from <i>Vaccinium</i> species at the diploid, tetraploid, and hexaploid levels has been found in cultivated blueberries. Continued efforts to integrate wild blueberry genetic resources into blueberry breeding are essential to broaden the genetic diversity of cultivated blueberries. However, performing heteroploid crosses among <i>Vaccinium</i> species is challenging. Polyploid induction through tissue culture has been useful in bridging ploidy barriers. Mixoploid or chimeric shoots often are produced, along with solid polyploid mutants. These chimeras are mostly discarded because of their genome instability and the difficulty in identifying periclinal mutants carrying germline mutations. Since induced polyploidy in blueberries often results in a low frequency of solid mutant lines, it is important to recover solid polyploids through chimera dissociation. In this study, two vegetative propagation methods, i.e., axillary and adventitious shoot induction, were evaluated for their efficiency in chimera dissociation. Significantly higher rates of chimera dissociation were found in adventitious shoot induction compared to axillary shoot induction. Approximately 89% and 82% of the adventitious shoots induced from mixoploid lines 145.11 and 169.40 were solid polyploids, respectively, whereas only 25% and 53% of solid polyploids were recovered through axillary shoot induction in these lines. Effective chimera dissociation provides useful and stable genetic materials to enhance blueberry breeding.
ISSN:2673-6284