Legume Research

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Legume Research, volume 40 issue 5 (october 2017) : 830-835

Caucasian clover (Trifolium ambiguum Bieb.) × white clover (T. repens L.) – interspecific hybrids developed through tissue culture

Fan Huang, Mingjiu Wang, Zhiyong Li
1Grassland Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hohhot-010 010, China.
  • Submitted13-09-2016|

  • Accepted17-02-2017|

  • First Online 18-09-2017|

  • doi 10.18805/LR-317

Cite article:- Huang Fan, Wang Mingjiu, Li Zhiyong (2017). Caucasian clover (Trifolium ambiguum Bieb.) × white clover (T. repens L.) – interspecific hybrids developed through tissue culture. Legume Research. 40(5): 830-835. doi: 10.18805/LR-317.
In order to create new forage variety, caucasian clover (Trifolium ambiguum Bieb.) with strong tolerance to drought and cold introduced from New Zealand as the female parent was hybridized with a white clover (T. repens L.) collected from northeast China, which has strong nitrogen fixation capacity. Hybrid embryos of caucasian clover×white clover were successfully raised using embryo rescue. 13.8% of these embryos grew to maturity. The successfully grown plants were transferred to sterilized vermiculite after 5-6 weeks and then to field after 3-4 months. The hybrid plant showed intermediate morphological features and a chromosomal number of 2n=5X=40. In order to obtain more plants for backcross, a tissue culture system was established for the hybrids, using MS+0.1mg l-1 2, 4-D+2mg l-1 6-BA, MS +0.5mg l-1 NAA+1mg l-1 6-BA+1mg l-1 KT and 1/2MS as the medium for bud-induction, differentiation and root-induction respectively. 80% of the cultured plantlets survived these growing conditions. Hybridity of the plant was also confirmed by ISSR markers using 16 primers.
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