Induced Tetraploidy in a Vaccinium elliottii Facilitates Crossing with Cultivated Highbush Blueberry

Abstract

A synthetic autotetraploid derived by colchicine treatment of a Vaccinium elliottii Chapm. plant (2n = 2x = 24) was used to study the effect of chromosome doubling on the ability of this noncultivated species to cross with the cultivated tetraploid highbush blueberry (V. corymbosum L.). Mean pollen germination was 28%1 for the autotetraploid plant, compared to 53% for the diploid V. elliottii plant. However, the number of seedlings obtained per flower pollinated on the tetraploid highbush cultivar O'Neal rose from 0.01 when diploid V. elliottii was the pollen source to 3.86 when pollen from the autotetraploid V. elliottii plant was used. Reciprocal crosses between diploid V. elliottii and its autotetraploid and selfs of the autotetraploid produced no seedlings. Meiotic irregularities, such as multivalent during metaphase, laggards, and unequal chromosome disjunction, were observed in the autotetraploid, but most chromosomes were associated as bivalents.