Molecular identification of Bambusa changningensis is the natural bamboo hybrid of B. rigida × Dendrocalamus farinosus

Juan Zhuo; Naresh Vasupalli; Yong Wang; Guoqiang Zhou; Huibin Gao; Ying Zheng; Benxiang Li; Dan Hou; Xinchun Lin

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1231940

Molecular identification of Bambusa changningensis is the natural bamboo hybrid of B. rigida × Dendrocalamus farinosus

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Sep 1:14:1231940. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1231940. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Juan Zhuo¹, Naresh Vasupalli¹, Yong Wang², Guoqiang Zhou², Huibin Gao², Ying Zheng¹, Benxiang Li³, Dan Hou¹, Xinchun Lin¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A & F University, Lin'An, Zhejiang, China.
² Forest and Bamboo Resources Conservation and Cultivation Institute, Yibin Forestry and Bamboo Industry Research Institute, Yibin, Sichuan, China.
³ Sichuan Changning Century Bamboo Garden, Yibin, Sichuan, China.

Abstract

Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants commonly used in food, fibre, paper, biofuel, ornamental and medicinal industries. Natural hybridization in bamboo is rare due to its long vegetative period followed by gregarious flowering and death of the entire population. In the current study, a new bamboo species, Bambusa changningensis, shows intermediate characteristics of Dendrocalamus farinosus and B. rigida morphologically, but it is unknown whether B. changningensis is a natural hybrid. Moreover, B. changningensis has been identified as a superior variety of Sichuan Province with high pulping yield, fibre length and width. Therefore, we analyzed the morphological characteristics, DNA markers, DNA barcoding and chloroplast genomes to identify the hybrid origin of B. changningensis and possible maternal parent. We have developed the transcriptomic data for B. changningensis and mined the SSR loci. The putative parental lines and hybrid were screened for 64 SSR makers and identified that SSR14, SSR28, SSR31 and SSR34 markers showed both alleles of the parental species in B. changningensis, proving heterozygosity. Sequencing nuclear gene GBSSI partial regions and phylogenetic analysis also confirm the hybrid nature of B. changningensis. Further, we have generated the complete chloroplast genome sequence (139505 bp) of B. changningensis. By analyzing the cp genomes of both parents and B. changningensis, we identified that B. rigida might be the female parent. In conclusion, our study identified that B. changningensis is a natural hybrid, providing evidence for bamboo's natural hybridization. This is the first report on confirming a natural bamboo hybrid and its parents through SSR and chloroplast genome sequence.

Keywords: GBSSI; SSR; chloroplast genome; natural hybrid bamboo; transcriptomic data.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from Study on tissue culture System construction and molecular biology of bamboo for fine fiber (2022NY027); the Research Fund for International Young Scientist by National Natural Science Foundation of China (32150410354).