The development, penetrance, and seed vigour of multi-ovary wheat and its application in hybrid breeding

Abstract

Multi-ovary wheat is a unique variety of wheat that has one to three pistils and three stamens, and can stably set one to three grains in each floret. By observing the developmental process of additional pistils, we found that the additional pistil was derived from a protrusion generated at the base of the main pistil, between the frontal stamen and lateral stamen. The additional pistil’s development was greatly delayed compared with the main pistil at an early stage. However, after the awn exposed stage, it developed very rapidly to a mature pistil within the maturity time of the main pistil. Generally, the grains originating from additional pistils were smaller than the grains from the main pistil. By studying the penetrance and germination conditions of multi-ovary wheat, we found that no matter which ovary the grains originated from, they had the same penetrance. However, the germination ability of grains generated from the main pistil was significantly higher than that of grains from additional pistils. Our results showed that multi-ovary wheat was an excellent variety, not only for studying the mechanisms of the multi-ovary trait and floral development in wheat, but also for improving the propagation coefficient and promoting the progress of wheat breeding. This paper lays a theoretical foundation for the practical application of multi-ovary trait in hybrid wheat; our results could be implemented in fostering future breeding activities focussed on the development of high yield wheat cultivars.