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Reproductive biology and breeding system in Casuarina equisetifolia (Casuarinaceae) – implication for genetic improvement
- Source :
- Australian Journal of Botany. 64:120
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- CSIRO Publishing, 2016.
-
Abstract
- Understanding the reproductive biology of plant species is essential for successful domestication and genetic improvement programs. Casuarina equisetifolia L. is an important plantation species in China and India but information on reproductive biology is limited. To address this issue, grafted ramets of C. equisetifolia were used to study floral biology, breeding system and progeny performance. The female floral longevity of C. equisetifolia reached 28.4 days under non-pollination conditions, which was significantly longer than that of supplementary pollination (5.5 days) and open pollination (12.2 days), implying successful pollination would accelerate senescence of female flowers. Higher fruit set (88.8%) and seed set (35.7%) under supplementary pollination were obtained, compared with 75.9% and 21.7%, respectively, under open pollination, although there were no fruit set and seed set under non-pollination conditions. Pollen limitation was evident based on pollen limitation index (0.39) in seedling plantations of C. equisetifolia. Selfed seedlings had low height and diameter growth in both nursery and field trials and markedly lower survival in field trial, indicating inbreeding depression. Microsatellite-based estimates of selfing rate of open pollinated, monoecious individuals was 42%, suggesting that monoecious C. equisetifolia individuals are self-compatible, and that the breeding system should be classified as facultative xenogamy.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
biology
Pollination
Selfing
Plant Science
Casuarina equisetifolia
biology.organism_classification
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Xenogamy
Open pollination
Botany
Inbreeding depression
Tree breeding
Plant reproductive morphology
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
010606 plant biology & botany
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 00671924
- Volume :
- 64
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Australian Journal of Botany
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........a057e41b95e19e7a92d777a5e8f21adb
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1071/bt15184