Cytological Behavior of Hybridization Barriers Between Oryza sativa and Oryza officinalis

Oryza officinalis is one of the important wild species in the tertiary gene pool of Oryza sativa. It has a number of elite genes for rice breeding in resistance or tolerance. However, breeding barriers are so serious that the gene transfer is much difficult by sexual cross method between O. sativa and O. officinalis. Characteristics of the breeding barriers were systemically studied in this paper. When both the diploid (AA, 2n=2x=24) and autotetraploid (AAAA, 2n=4x=48) cultivated rice were crossed as maternal parents with O. officinalis (CC, 2n=2x=24), none Fj hybrid seeds were obtained. The young hybrid ovaries aborted at 13-16 d after pollinations (DAP). By rescuing hybrid embryos, in vitro Fj plantlets were obtained in 2x×2x combinations with the crossabilities lower than 0.5%. Lower rates of double-fertilization and abnormal development of hybrid embryo and endosperm were mainly observed in both combinations of 2x×2x and 4x×2x. Free endosperm nuclei in hybrid degenerated early at 1 DAP in a large scale. Almost no normal endosperm cells formed at 3 DAP. Development of a lot of embryos ceased at globular- or pear-shaped stage as well as some degenerated gradually. The hybrid plantlets were both male and female sterility. Due to the abnormal development, a diversity of abnormal embryo sacs formed in hybrids, and hybrid pollen grains were typically abortive. It showed that conflicts of genome A and C in hybrid induced abnormal meioses of meiocytes.