SpringerLink
Log in

Haploid induction via unfertilized ovary culture in watermelon

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC) Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Unfertilized ovary culture constitutes an effective method for haploid breeding and can greatly shorten the breeding time. This method has been successfully used for breeding in many species, but reports of this method for breeding watermelon are scarce. Therefore, we performed an experiment to induce haploid plantlets. We evaluated the effects of several important factors on unfertilized ovary cultures of watermelon, including genotype, medium, the duration of induction and the development stage of the ovaries. The results revealed that the genotype of donor plants was a key factor for in vitro gynogenesis. The induction rate of eight watermelon cultivars varied from 0.00 to 15.14 ELSs per100 ovary slices. The most effective induction medium and maturation medium were MS medium supplemented with 3 mg L− 1 2,4-D, 2 mg L− 1 BAP, 0.5 mg L−1 NAA and MS supplemented with 0.8 mg L− 1 BAP and 0.2 mg L− 1 NAA, respectively. The duration of induction significantly influenced ELS formation. The optimum duration was 13 days, and unfertilized ovaries collected at anthesis had the higher induction rate. We obtained more than 100 plantlets and used chromosome counting and flow cytometry to determine the ploidy levels of 50 of them, among which 48 were haploid and 2 were diploid. Our results demonstrated that in vitro gynogenesis can be induced in watermelon by unfertilized ovaries culture.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price includes VAT (Germany)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

ELS:

Embryo-like structure

DH:

Double haploid

MS:

Murashige and Skoog basal salt and vitamins

2,4-D:

2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid

BAP:

6-Benzylaminopurine

NAA:

a-Naphthaleneacetic acid

KT:

Kinetin

IBA:

Indole-3-butyric acid

Tris:

2-Amino-2-hydroxymethyl-1,3-propanediol

References

  • Abdollahi MR, Darbandi M, Hamidvand Y, Majdi M (2015) The influence of phytohormones, wheat ovary co-culture, and temperature stress on anther culture response of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus L.). Braz J Botany 38(3):447–456

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen JF, Cui L, Malik AA, Mbira KG (2011) In vitro haploid and dihaploid production via unfertilized ovule culture. Plant Cell Tiss Organ Cult 104:311–319

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diao WP, Jia YY, Song H, Zhang XQ, Lou QF, Chen JF (2009) Efficient embryo induction in cucumber ovary culture and homozygous identification of the regenerants using SSR markers. Sci Hortic 119(3):246–251

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Doi H, Yokoi S, Hikage T, Nishihara M, Tsutsumi KI, Takahata Y (2011) Gynogenesis in gentians (Gentiana triflora, G. scabra): production of haploids and doubled haploids. Plant Cell Rep 30(6):1099–1106

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Doi H, Hoshi N, Yamada E, Yokoi S, Nishihara M, Hikage T, Takahata Y (2013) Efficient haploid and doubled haploid production from unfertilized ovule culture of gentians (Gentiana spp.). Breed Sci 63(4):400–406

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dong YQ, Zhao WX, Li XH, Liu XC, Gao NN, Huang JH, Wang WY, Xu XL, Tang ZH (2016) Androgenesis, gynogenesis, and parthenogenesis haploids in cucurbit species. Plant Cell Rep 35:1991–2019

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ficcadenti N, Sestili S, Annibali S, Marco MD, Schiavi M (1999) In vitro gynogenesis to induce haploid plants in melon (Cucumis melo L.). J Genet Breed 53(3):255–257

    Google Scholar 

  • Gémesné JA, Venczel G, Balogh P (1997) Haploid plant induction in zucchini (Cucurbita pepo L. convar. giromontiina DUCH.) and in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) lines through in vitro gynogenesis. Acta Hort 447:623–625

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gémesné JA, Balogh P, Ferenczy A, Kristóf Z (2002) Effect of optimal stage of female gametophyte and heat treatment on in vitro gynogenesis induction in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.). Plant Cell Rep 21(2):105–111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koli SP, Murthy HN (2013) Haploid plant regeneration from unpollinated ovules of Cucumis melo L. var. Conomon cv. Mudicode. Br Biotechnol J 3(4):605–613

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kurtar ES, Balkaya A, Kandemir D (2016) Evaluation of haploidization efficiency in winter squash (Cucurbita maxima Duch.) and pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch.) through anther culture. Plant Cell Tiss Organ Cult 127(2):497–511

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li JW, Si SW, Cheng JY, Li JX, Liu JQ (2013) Thidiazuron and silver nitrate enhanced gynogenesis of unfertilized ovule cultures of Cucumis sativus. Biol Plant 57(1):164–168

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Malik AA, Cui L, Zhang SX, Chen JF (2011) Efficiency of SSR makers for determining the origin of melon plantlets derived through unfertilized ovary culture. Hort Sci 38(1):27–34

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Metwally EI, Moustafa SA, El-Sawy BI, Haroun SA, Shalaby TA (1998) Production of haploid plants from in vitro culture of unpollinated ovules of Cucurbita pepo L. Plant Cell Tiss Organ Cult 52(3):117–121

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Min ZY, Li H, Zou T, Tong L, Cheng J, Sun XW (2016) Studies of in vitro culture and plant regeneration of unfertilized ovary of pumpkin. Chin Bull Bot 51(1):74–80

    Google Scholar 

  • Moqbeli E, Peyvast G, Hamidoghli Y, Olfati JA (2013) In vitro cucumber haploid line generation in several new cultivars. As Pac J Mol Biol Biotechnol 21(1):18–25

    Google Scholar 

  • San Noeum LH, Gelebart P (1986) Production of gynogenic haploids. In: Vasil IK (ed) Cell culture and somatic cell genetics of plants, vol 3. Academic, New York, pp 305–322

    Google Scholar 

  • Shalaby TA (2007) Factors affecting haploid induction through in vitro gynogenesis in summer squash (Cucurbita pepo L.). Sci Hortic 115(1):1–6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suprunova T, Shmykova N (2008) In vitro induction of haploid plants in unpollinated ovules, anther and microspore culture of Cucumis sativus. In: Pitrat M (ed) Proceedings of the IXth EUCARPIA meeting on genetics and breeding of Cucurbitaceae. Avignon, France, pp 371–374

  • Tantasawat PA, Sorntip A, Poolsawat O, Chaowiset W, Pornbungkerd P (2015) Evaluation of factors affecting embryo-like structure and callus formation in unpollinated ovary culture of cucumber (Cucumis sativus). Int J Agric Biol 17:613–618

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Taşkın H, Yücel NK, Baktemur G, Çömlekçioğlu S, Büyükalaca S (2013) Effects of different genotypes and gamma ray doses on haploidization with irradiated pollen technique in watermelon (Citrullus lanatus L.). Can J Plant Sci 93(6):1165–1168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vasudevan V, Subramanyam K, Elayaraja D, Karthik S, Vasudevan A, Manickavasagam M (2017) Assessment of the efficacy of amino acids and polyamines on regeneration of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus Thunb.) and analysis of genetic fidelity of regenerated plants by SCoT and RAPD markers. Plant Cell Tiss Organ Cult 130:681–687

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang Y, Gu XF, Zhang SP, Miao H (2015) Studies on haploid plant induction via in vitro unfertilized ovule culture of cucumber. Acta Horticulturae Sinica 42(11)::2174–2182

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Xue GR, Yu WY, Fei KW, Cui HN, Sun RX (1983) Watermelon plants derived by in vitro anther culture. Plant Physiol Commun 4:40–42

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang LJ, Yang Y, Shen WJ, Wang JS (2015) Haploid plant and its identification of watermelon using gynogenesis in vitro induction. J Agric Sci 36(4):8–11

    CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, Hunan, China. In addition, we thank Hunan Xue-Feng Seed Company, Ltd., for seed support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Horticulture and Landscape College, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, Hunan, China

    Tian Zou, He-Nan Su, Qi Wu & **ao-Wu Sun

  2. Shaoyang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shaoyang, Hunan, China

    **ao-Wu Sun

Authors
  1. Tian Zou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. He-Nan Su
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Qi Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. **ao-Wu Sun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

TZ and H-NS conceived and designed research. TZ conducted experiments. TZ and QW analyzed data. TZ wrote the manuscript. X-WS provided advice on the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to **ao-Wu Sun.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Communicated by Maria Antonietta Germanà.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zou, T., Su, HN., Wu, Q. et al. Haploid induction via unfertilized ovary culture in watermelon. Plant Cell Tiss Organ Cult 135, 179–187 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-018-1454-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-018-1454-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation