Androgenesis from a Lolium multiflorum × Festuca arundinacea hybrid to generate extreme variation for freezing‐tolerance

Abstract New opportunities for plant breeding using androgenesis in Lolium × Festuca hybrids have been identified. Plants derived by anther culture from a Lolium multiflorum × Festuca arundinacea (5x) hybrid were screened for freezing‐tolerance, and their post‐freezing recovery compared. The androgenic population showed extreme diversity in freezing‐tolerance. While the majority of androgenic plants had inferior freezing‐tolerance compared with the freezing‐sensitive L. multiflorum parent, 6% of the population were more freezing resistant than the freezing‐tolerant Festuca parent. Novel Lolium and Festuca gene combinations resulting from rare meiotic events were recovered within the androgenic population. The two most freezing‐tolerant androgenic plants carried virtually the entire F. pratensis subgenome of F. arundinacea. F. pratensis is known to carry genes for freezing‐tolerance and would be expected to be the primary source of genes governing this trait within the F. arundinacea genome. The most freezing‐tolerant androgenic plants were more freezing‐tolerant than the hybrid plant from which they were derived. Consequently, androgenesis was also effective in removing factor(s) reducing the expression of freezing‐tolerance within the L. multiflorum × F. arundinacea (5x) hybrid.