NUCIS number 12. September 2004. 52 pages (full ... - IAMZ - ciheam

MATERIALS AND METHODSType I (all branches bore a mixture ofmale and female infloresences) and TypeII (a tree has several branches with onlystaminate flowers, while the rest of thebranches bore pistillate inflorescences)monoecious trees found by Kafkas et al(2000) are the main materials of this study.Figure 1 shows some pictures fromthe fully monoecious tree (Type I). Thesetrees were used both as female and maleparents in this study. Additionally, two femaleP. vera cultivars (cvs ‘Siirt’ and‘Ohadi’) with a dioecious female P. atlanticatree as maternal tree, and dioeciousmale P. vera and P. atlantica trees wereused as pollinators. Totally, twenty differentcrosses were performed betweenfive female and four male parents.Before the stigma becomes receptive, femaleinflorescences were closed with apaper bag (Figure 1D). To collect pollenfrom male parents for artificial pollination,staminate branches of four pollinatorswere cut and put in water-containing potsin the laboratory to perform pollen tests andcross-pollination. In the following two days,pollen was collected and stored at -20 0 Cuntil pollination. Wheat flour was used as amixing agent with pollen at a ratio of 1:1.The harvested nuts were stratified for 60days and then they were germinated inthe greenhouse. Germinated plantletswere transplanted into the five liter plasticbags. The plants were transplanted to theorchard in the autumn of 2003 and dripirrigation is to be set up in 2004.Besides artificial pollination, the parentsused in this study were described morphologically.The progenies between P.atlantica genotypes and four pollinatorswere also characterized. The distributionof male/female branches/inflorescencesin the monoecious trees was observedyear to year by labeling them within thetree as well. When the progenies will reachthe reproductive stage, they would betested for their sex type, and they will beused as breeding parents to try to obtainmonoecious cultivated pistachios withhigh quality nuts. The segregating populationswill also be used to understandsex mechanism in Pistacia and will beused for molecular studies to clonegene(s) that are responsible for sex determination.Figure 1. (A) The fully monoecious P. atlantica tree, (B) a view from branches of the fully monoecious tree(F: pistillate inflorescences, M: staminate inflorescences), (C) close up view of the staminate and pistillateinflorescences in a branch, (D) P. vera cv Siirt cultivar tree with bagged branchesRESULTS AND DISCUSSIONArtificial pollination was made duringthree years. In 2001, the crosses betweenP. atlantica and four pollinators, in2002 the crosses between P. vera andthe pollinators, and in 2003 additionalcrosses were performed to increase plantnumbers. The crosses between P. atlanticaand four pollinators were made in Manisaprovince, whereas the crossesbetween P. vera and the pollinators wereperformed in Gaziantep Pistachio ResearchInstitute placed 1200 km far fromManisa province. The pollens were transportedto Gaziantep province in dry ice.Table 1 shows targeted and current plantnumbers in this project. We aimed to obtain500-700 seedlings from the crossesbetween P. vera cvs and monoecious P.atlantica Type I, 100-200 seedlings fromthe crosses between P. vera cvs and monoeciousP. atlantica Type II, 50-100seedlings from rest of the crosses. Totallyit is targetted to have 2000-3400 seedlingsin the project. Currently, we completedall the combinations and we havetotally 3054 seedlings in plastic bags.However, we also did additional crossesin (2003) to increase plant numbers especiallybetween P. vera and monoeciousgenotypes.Table 1. Targeted and current plant numbers in the crosses.No Female Male Targeted plant Current plantnumbers numbers1 P. atlantica x *M-PA-Type I 50-100 1082 P. atlantica x M-PA-Type II 50-100 1083 P. atlantica x P. vera 50-100 1084 P. atlantica x P. atlantica 50-100 1085 M-PA-Type I x M-PA-Type I 50-100 1106 M-PA-Type I x M-PA-Type II 50-100 587 M-PA-Type I x P. vera 50-100 698 M-PA-Type I x P. atlantica 50-100 989 M-PA-Type II x M-PA-Type I 50-100 7010 M-PA-Type II x M-PA-Type II 50-100 5211 M-PA-Type II x P. vera 50-100 5412 M-PA-Type II x P. atlantica 50-100 9713 P. vera cv. Ohadi x M-PA-Type I 500-700 63014 P. vera cv. Ohadi x M-PA-Type II 100-200 10815 P. vera cv. Ohadi x P. vera 50-100 5816 P. vera cv. Ohadi x P. atlantica 50-100 5617 P. vera cv. Siirt x M-PA-Type I 500-700 65818 P. vera cv. Siirt x M-PA-Type II 100-200 27319 P. vera cv. Siirt x P. vera 50-100 12020 P. vera cv. Siirt x P. atlantica 50-100 111Total plant numbers 2000-3400 3054M-PA: Monoecious P. atlantica22 FAO-CIHEAM - Nucis-Newsletter, Number 12 September 2004