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Scientia Horticulturae 83 (2000) 301±310

Production of doubled haploid plants of carnation
(Dianthus caryophyllus L.) by pseudofertilized
ovule culture
S. Sato*, N. Katoh, H. Yoshida, S. Iwai1, M. Hagimori
Applied Plant Research Laboratory, Japan Tobacco Inc.,
1900 Idei, Oyama, Tochigi, 323-0808 Japan
Accepted 22 July 1999

Abstract
Doubled haploids of carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) were obtained by pseudofertilized
ovule culture. Emasculated ¯ower buds of carnation were pollinated with pollen inactivated by Xray irradiation. After 2±3 weeks, the ovaries were explanted and were cultured on solid MS medium
containing 2 mM NAA, 2 mM BAP and 6% sucrose. Regenerated plants(R0) were morphologically
different from the mother plants, indicating that they did not originate from their somatic cells. Root
tip cells of the R0 plants were chimeric for the chromosome number; both 2n ˆ 30 cells and
2n ˆ 15 cells were observed in root tips. The R0 plants were fertile and selfed seeds (R1) were
obtained. The R1 plants of each R0 plant were morphologically uniform and were identical to their
respective R0 plants. From these results we conclude that the R0 plants were doubled haploids.
# 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Doubled haploid; Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L.); Pseudofertilized ovule culture;

Irradiated pollen

1. Introduction
In carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L., 2n ˆ 30), most commercially
important varieties are vegetatively propagated, and are not F1 hybrids. Some
*

Corresponding author. Fax: ‡81-285-22-2961.
E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Sato).
1
Present address: Faculty of Agriculture, Kagoshima University, Kohrimoto, Kagoshima 8900065, Japan.
0304-4238/00/$ ± see front matter # 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 3 0 4 - 4 2 3 8 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 9 0 - 4

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disadvantages exist with clonal propagation compared with seed propagation
from the viewpoint of commercial production of seeds and rooted cuttings.

First, the production cost per plantlet is much higher in clonal propagation
than in seed propagation. Second, perfect control of virus and other diseases
in the nursery is essential in clonal propagation. This is, however, rather dif®cult
and increases the rooted cutting cost. Third, the shelf life of cuttings is far
shorter than that of seeds. A change to propagating the F1 variety from propagating the clonal variety would be greatly advantageous in seed and seedling
production.
To breed F1 varieties, producing inbred lines as the parental lines is necessary.
Conventionally, an inbred line is produced by repeating sel®ng for several
generations. Also, in carnation, inbreeding depression appears in the S3 progeny
in most varieties so that it is almost impossible to produce S4 seeds. Production of
doubled haploids is another way to produce pure lines. Anther culture of
carnation has been tried (Murty and Kumar, 1976; Villalobos, 1981), but to our
knowledge, no reports exist of the successful production of haploids or doubled
haploids. Likewise, no reports exist of microspore cultures of carnation.
Ovules are a possible alternative source material for haploid (or doubled
haploid) production. Successful production of haploids or doubled haploids has
been reported for several species, such as Nicotiana (Pandey and Phung, 1982),
Petunia (Raquin, 1985), apple (Zhang et al., 1988), Brassica (DoreÂ, 1989) and
melon (Sauton and Dumas, 1987; Katoh et al., 1993).
In this study, we tried the pseudofertilized ovule culture of carnation and

succeeded in the reproducible production of doubled haploids. This is the ®rst
report to succeed in producing doubled haploids of carnation.

2. Materials and methods
2.1. Plant materials
Commercial cultivars and breeding lines of carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus
L., 2n ˆ 30) were used. All plants were grown in a greenhouse in which the
temperature was maintained between 188C and 328C.
In experiment 1, breeding lines of the standard type and the spray type were
used as the ovule donors. Pollen was collected for pseudofertilization from
¯owers of the spray type lines that produce suf®cient pollen grains.
In experiment 2, the spray type line ``933145'' with purple petals was used as
the pollen donor. In petal color genetics, purple is dominant over white and
yellow. The line ``933145'' has been con®rmed to be homozygous for this trait
from our breeding results. Seven lines or cultivars with white or yellow petals
including a cultivar ``Tundra'' were used as the ovule donors.

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303


2.2. Pseudofertilization
Immature ¯ower buds of the ovule donors were emasculated at least 1 week
before anthesis and were bagged to prevent outcrossing. After about 2 weeks, the
¯ower buds matured to fertility is indicated by the stigma of the buds; they had
curled to the outside by this stage. Anthers from the pollen donor were collected
in a petri dish and irradiated with 100 kR (experiment 1) or 200 kR (experiment 2)
at 1252 R/min using an X-ray unit (OM-100R, Ohmic, Ltd., Tokyo). The ¯ower buds
of the ovule donor were pollinated with the irradiated pollen and bagged again.
2.3. Ovule culture
Ovaries were collected 1±4 weeks after pseudofertilization. Their surfaces were
sterilized using a spray of 70% ethanol. The ovaries were then submerged in
sodium hypochlorite solution (1% available chlorine) for 15 min and they were
rinsed with sterilized water three times. Ovules with placenta were isolated from
the ovaries and were placed on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium (Murashige
and Skoog, 1962) supplemented with NAA 2 mM, BAP 2 mM, 0.8% agar and 6%,
9% or 12% sucrose. These media were based on Demmink et al. (1987). The pH
of the medium was adjusted to 5.8 with 0.1N KOH before autoclaving. The ovules
were cultured at 248C under a 12 h light (white ¯uorescent lamp, light intensity of
20 mmol mÿ2 Sÿ1) ±12 h dark cycle for 4 weeks. The shoots regenerated from the

ovules were transferred to MS medium without plant growth regulators containing
3% sucrose and 0.8% agar. The plantlets were potted using perlite as the substrate,
acclimatized in a mist room (relative humidity 100%) set in the greenhouse at 258C
for 2 weeks, and then transferred to soil in pots and grown in a greenhouse.
2.4. Cytological studies
The germination of irradiated pollen on stigmas was observed by the aniline blue
staining methods of Shivanna and Rangaswamy (1992). One day after pollination the
ovaries were collected and were stained by soaking them in a solution containing
1% aniline blue and 0.1N Na3PO4 for 1 h. They were then placed on a glass slide,
cut into two pieces and observed using a ¯uorescent microscope.
The number of chromosomes in the root tip cells of the plantlets were counted
by the method of Nishibayashi and Kaeriyama (1986).

3. Results
The irradiated pollen, which had pollinated the stigma, germinated and the
pollen tube elongated into the style as normal pollen (Fig. 1). Although the

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Fig. 1. X-ray irradiated pollen of carnation germinating on a stigma and their pollen tubes
elongating into the style. Scale bar, 100 mm.

ovaries pollinated with irradiated pollen, began to swell 1 week after pollination,
they eventually aborted after 4 weeks unless they were cultured. Thus we
collected ovaries 2±3 weeks after pollination.
In experiment 1, about 300 ovaries of various lines were cultured. More than a
hundred shoots regenerated from ovules only cultured on a medium containing
6% sucrose (Fig. 2). On the other hand, in the case cultured on media containing
9% or 12% sucrose, shoots were not regenerated. These shoots directly emerged
from the ovules without forming a callus. These elongated shoots were obtained
at the rate of 1 shoot per 1 ovule. After rooting they were acclimatized and grown
in a greenhouse. Flowers of most of the regenerated plants (R0) were found to
have normal pollen, so they were self-crossed. Seeds were obtained from 55
regenerated plants. Each S1 progeny of those 55 plants were cultivated and
observed for petal color and petal number, both traits segregated in 54 of the S1
progeny, but all individuals of the S1 progeny of one regenerated plant (97KCR0-1) showed uniform petal color and uniform petal number per ¯ower,
indicating that 97KC-R0-1 was genetically ®xed. The mother plant (ovule donor)
of the ®xed plant was 97KC, which is a line of the double-¯owered type with lilac

petals. In the self-cross progeny of 97KC, the trait of petal number per ¯ower
segregated among 5±25 and the petal color changed from light pink to deep
purple (Fig. 3). The regenerated plant (97KC-R0-1) was the single-¯owered type
with purple petals. All individuals of the S1 progeny of 97KC-R0-1 were similar
in petal color and petal number per ¯ower to those of 97KC-R0-1 (Fig. 4).
The chromosome number in the root tip cells of 97KC-R0-1 was counted. Cells
with 15 chromosomes and those with 30 chromosomes were found to coexist in a

Fig. 2. Shoot emerged from a cultured ovule. Scale bar, 1 cm.

Fig. 3. A ¯ower of the line ``97KC'', center, and those of its S1 progeny around it. Scale bar, 3 cm.

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Fig. 4. The ¯owers of S1 progeny plants of 97KC-R0-1 that regenerated from a cultured
pseudofertilized ovule of line ``97KC''.Scale bar, 1 cm.

root tip indicating the root tips were chimeric consisting of both haploid and

doubled haploid cells (Fig. 5). The chromosome number of each ploidy levels
was counted over 10 cells.
In experiment 2, pollen was irradiated with 200 kR X-ray to inactivate the
pollen completely. Almost a hundred ovaries were cultured. One plantlet was
regenerated from an ovary of ``Tundra'' cultured on a medium containing 6%
sucrose. The plantlet was acclimatized and grown in a greenhouse. In the
measurement of nuclear DNA content of leaf samples by using ¯ow cytometry,
the ploidy level of the regenerated plant (Tundra-R0-1) was the same as the
Tundra (data not shown). The ¯ower of the regenerated plant (Tundra-R0-1) was
the single-¯ower type with ®ve white petals per ¯ower (Fig. 6), whereas Tundra,
the mother plant, had 50±70 yellow petals with a pink edge (Fig. 7). Tundra-R0-1
yielded abundant normal pollen grains. They were self-crossed and S1 seeds were
obtained. The S1 progeny were grown and their morphology observed. All the
observed individuals of the S1 progeny of Tundra-R0-1 were similar to each other
not only in ¯ower color and petal number, but also in other traits, such as
formation of the plant to Tundra-R0-1. From these results we conclude that
Tundra-R0-1 and 97KC-R0-1 were doubled haploids.

4. Discussion
In this study, we obtained two regenerated plants, 97KC-R0-1 and Tundra-R01, which we conclude to be doubled haploids. They were fertile without any

chromosome doubling treatment. In studies of pseudofertilized ovule culture, as
well as of anther culture, the origin of the regenerated plant should be
demonstrated early. The regenerated plants have three potential origins in
addition to real fertilized ovules.

S. Sato et al. / Scientia Horticulturae 83 (2000) 301±310

307

Fig. 5. Chromosomes in root apex cells of a plantlet regenerated from the cultured pseudofertilized
ovule of line ``97KC'': (a) haploid cell (2n ˆ 15); (b) diploid cell (2n ˆ 30). Scale bar, 10 mm.

The ®rst potential origin is from the somatic cells of the mother plant, which, if
true, means that the regenerated plants would be identical to the mother plant.
Both 97KC-R0-1 and Tundra-R0-1 were morphologically different from their
respective mother plants. Also, when the spontaneous somaclonal variation was
induced from regeneration process, the S1 progeny would segregate by many
phenotypes. However, The S1 progeny of both 97KC-R0-1 and Tundra-R0-1
were uniform. So, the ®rst potential origin is rejected.
The second potential origin is an ovule fertilized with active pollen escaped

from X-ray irradiation. If true, dominant traits of the pollen donor must be
expressed in the regenerated plants. In experiment 2, the ¯ower color of the

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Fig. 6. The ¯owers of S1 progeny plants of Tundra-R0-1 that regenerated from a cultured
pseudofertilized ovule of the cultivar ``Tundra''. Scale bar, 1 cm.

pollen donor ``933145'' was purple and that of the mother plant ``Tundra'' was
yellow. Purple is dominant over yellow in carnation. If the origin of the
regenerated plant ``Tundra-R0-1'' had been an ovule fertilized with active
``933145'' pollen, the ¯ower color should have been purple. Because the ¯ower
color of Tundra-R0-1 was white, the second potential origin is rejected.
The third potential origin is an ovule self-fertilized with the pollen of the
mother plant that had not been emasculated. If true, the regenerated plant would
not be ®xed because the material plants are highly heterozygous and the S1

Fig. 7. The ¯ower of cultivar ``Tundra''. Scale bar, 1 cm.


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progeny would segregate by many characteristics. The S1 progeny of both 97KCR0-1 and Tundra-R0-1 were uniform, not only in ¯ower color and petal number
per ¯ower, but also in other characteristics, indicating both 97KC-R0-1 and
Tundra-R0-1 are ®xed. So, the third potential origin is also rejected.
Thus, we conclude that 97KC-R0-1 and Tundra-R0-1 are doubled haploids.
Both 97KC-R0-1 and Tundra-R0-1 were fertile indicating they were diploids.
Spontaneous chromosome doubling of haploids is observed in several species
(Hamaoka et al., 1991; Miyoshi, 1996). It is considered to occur in the early
stages of regeneration of both 97KC-R0-1 and Tundra-R0-1. The fact that haploid
cells coexisted with diploid cells in the root tips of 97KC-R0-1 supports the view
that 97KC-R0-1 had been originally a haploid. This is the ®rst report to succeed
in producing doubled haploids of carnation.
Although our results indicate that the doubled haploid plants were obtained by
pseudofertilized ovule culture, the ef®ciency of doubled haploid production from
ovules was not so high. Therefore, haploid induction may be improved by the
manipulation of physical, chemical and physiological conditions especially in the
maternal materials. And then, the modi®cation of irradiate condition and embryo
rescue might be effective for haploid plants production. A greater understanding
of factor that are involved in morphogenic competence is still needed to realize
the full potential of in vitro parthenogenesis in carnation.

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