Gamma irradiation effect of female gametophyte in emasculated spring bread wheat plants on ovaries’ growth when crossed with maize

Abstract

Over a period of 5 years, there was conducted a series of trials on the use of γ-irradiation of the female gametophyte of spring common wheat before remote hybridization with maize to study the effect of the phytohormonal changes during irradiation at various doses on ovaries’ growth after pollination with maize. Optimal timing of work on castration, irradiation, and pollination with maize pollen were established. It has been concluded that it is necessary to conduct such experiments in controlled conditions of a climatic chamber to avoid additional stress during fertilization and development of an embryo. The best results in ovaries’ growth were obtained (7.89–11.30 % of developed ovaries) with γ-irradiation in the dose from 3 to 15 Gy. There have been found changes in the level of various phytohormones and the possible influence of these changes on ovaries’ setting and growth, as potential sources of haploid and apomictically developed genotypes. The variants with the best indicators of developed ovaries are characterized by an increase in the ratio values of the salicylic acid/indole-3-acetic acid and salicylic acid/abscisic acid in relation to the same values before irradiation.

Keywords

• common wheat
• maize
• gamma irradiation
• phytohormones
• female gametophyte
• ovaries