Description

Pangolagrass cv. A254, a sterile strain, is one of Taiwan's major forage sources but recently has faced serious disease problems. Tissue culture was expected to generate variations in the breeding program of pangolagrass. The purpose of this study is to examine the somaclonal variation of regenerated plants by means of phenotypic characters survey and RAPD analysis. After long-term suspension culture and EMS mutagenesis, many regenerated plants with morphological variations have been found. Among the regenerants, 10 clones with obviously different characteristics were selected for further studies. Nine of them showed significant differences in morphological trains as compared to A254. By using 18 random primers and a total of 126 bands examined in RAPD analysis, a considerable degree of DNA polymorphism could be found between all of the 10 regenerants and A254. Their genetic similarities to A254 ranged from 0.48 to 0.93. The results indicate that long-term suspension culture and EMS mutagenesis did help to produce genetic variations of A254 in a breeding program.

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Morphological and RAPD Variations and Regenerants Derived from Cell Suspension Culture of Pangolagrass

Pangolagrass cv. A254, a sterile strain, is one of Taiwan's major forage sources but recently has faced serious disease problems. Tissue culture was expected to generate variations in the breeding program of pangolagrass. The purpose of this study is to examine the somaclonal variation of regenerated plants by means of phenotypic characters survey and RAPD analysis. After long-term suspension culture and EMS mutagenesis, many regenerated plants with morphological variations have been found. Among the regenerants, 10 clones with obviously different characteristics were selected for further studies. Nine of them showed significant differences in morphological trains as compared to A254. By using 18 random primers and a total of 126 bands examined in RAPD analysis, a considerable degree of DNA polymorphism could be found between all of the 10 regenerants and A254. Their genetic similarities to A254 ranged from 0.48 to 0.93. The results indicate that long-term suspension culture and EMS mutagenesis did help to produce genetic variations of A254 in a breeding program.