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Published in Crop Sci 12:843-847 (1972)
© 1972 Crop Science Society of America
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Apomixis and Sexuality in Eragrostis curvula1

P. W. Voigt and E. C. Bashaw2

Weeping lovegrass, Eragrostis curvula (Schrad.) Nees, reproduces by obligate apomixis (diplospory). Eventual success in the breeding of this important forage and conservation species depends on the identification of sexual types and their successful manipulation. The objective of this study was to examine megasporogenesis and embryo sac development in plants producing variable progenies (presumed sexuals) compared with development apomictic plants. Offspring of the presumed sexual plants were also examined cytologically.

The study indicated that the plants producing variable progenies were indeed sexual. The best indicator of sexuality was evidence of meiosis and the presence of a tetrad of megaspores. The number of nuclei in mature embryo sacs was not always a good indicator of mode of reproduction.

It was apparent that diplospory is genetically controlled. Based on the cytological results from the offspring of the sexual plants, we propose, as a working hypothesis, that mode of reproduction in Eragrostis curvula is controlled by only a few genes and that sexuality is either dominant or epistatic to apomixis.

Because apomixis is apparently obligate in this species, we believe that, through hybridization of sexual and apomictic strains, diplospory can be effectively manipulated in a lovegrass breeding program.

Key Words: Diplospory • Megasporogenesis • Embryo sac development • Inheritance of apomixis

1 Cooperative investigations of the Plant Science Research Division, ARS, USDA, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station and Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station. Published with the approval of the Director, Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station, as Manuscript No. 2496.

2 Research Geneticists, PSRD, ARS, USDA, U. S. Southern Great Plains Field Station, Woodward, Okla. 73801, and Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843.

Received for publication June 1, 1972.




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