Meiotic behavior of Brachiaria decumbens hybrids

Brachiaria decumbens is a forage grass of inestimable value for livestock in Brazil due to its production of good quality forage even when planted on acid and poor soils, although it is susceptible to pasture spittlebugs. Only one cultivar, cv. Basilisk, has been used as the pollen donor in crosses with Brachiaria ruziziensis since 1988 at Embrapa Gado de Corte Research Center. Breeding within the species only became possible from 2009 when sexual accessions were successfully tetraploidized using colchicine. Three sexual genotypes were obtained and hybridization within B. decumbens was finally achieved. Here, we evaluated microspore tetrads using conventional cytology and found meiotic indexes above 78% for all three female genitors (cD24-2, cD24-27, cD24-45), but a low meiotic index (<22%) in the natural apomictic genitor D62 (cv. Basilisk) and in 49 hybrids. Analysis of the relationship between abnormal tetrad frequency and non-viable pollen grains yielded a highly significant Pearson correlation coefficient. The t-test proved significant for the progeny of cD24-45 x D62, with lower abnormalities and pollen sterility when compared to the other two progenies resulting from cD24-2 and cD24-27 crossed to D62, but these two did not differ. Apomictic hybrids such as S036 and X030 with low pollen sterility have the potential for use in cultivar development, whereas the sexual hybrids T012, X072, and X078 might be of use as female genitors in polycross blocks if they display good agronomic traits.