Articles
Induced polyploids and breeding for ecosystem services
Article number
1434_38
Pages
277 – 282
Language
English
Abstract
Landscape plants often are planted in inhospitable urban sites with poor soil, high heat loads, and other stressors.
These plants are expected to survive and contribute to the aesthetics of their environment while also performing ecosystem services such as remediating stormwater runoff, ameliorating the heat island effect, and sequestering carbon.
Some common urban plants have performed well under the rigors of urban plantings but are highly fecund, which has led to their escape from cultivation and, in some cases, invasiveness.
To address this, breeders have been developing induced polyploids and backcrossing to produce plants with odd-numbered ploidy levels, which renders them less fertile.
This method has been proven highly effective in many taxa.
Of current interest, due to pressures from climate change, is assessing how these plants may respond to increased drought stress or heat stress.
Related, we seek to understand if polyploid cultivars can be produced with less water to make more efficient use of what is becoming a scarcer resource.
The resulting cultivars may require less water to produce and could become parts of low-input landscapes, while not escaping cultivation to invade native ecosystems.
These plants are expected to survive and contribute to the aesthetics of their environment while also performing ecosystem services such as remediating stormwater runoff, ameliorating the heat island effect, and sequestering carbon.
Some common urban plants have performed well under the rigors of urban plantings but are highly fecund, which has led to their escape from cultivation and, in some cases, invasiveness.
To address this, breeders have been developing induced polyploids and backcrossing to produce plants with odd-numbered ploidy levels, which renders them less fertile.
This method has been proven highly effective in many taxa.
Of current interest, due to pressures from climate change, is assessing how these plants may respond to increased drought stress or heat stress.
Related, we seek to understand if polyploid cultivars can be produced with less water to make more efficient use of what is becoming a scarcer resource.
The resulting cultivars may require less water to produce and could become parts of low-input landscapes, while not escaping cultivation to invade native ecosystems.
Authors
M. Maher, R. Contreras, S. Dahms-May, L. Nackley, C. Scagel
Keywords
drought stress, pentaploids, physiology, triploids
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