Interspecific hybridization between Lilium ledebourii and commercial cultivars of lilium by cut-style method and ovary slice culture

Benefits of cut style method and ovary slice culture for overcoming pre-and post-zygotic barriers in lily crossing were studied. Three Asiatic hybrid cultivars (Tressor, Pirandello and Ceb duzzel) along with four cultivars of Oriental section (Rialto, Sorbonne, Paradero and Manissa) were used as maternal plants. Lilium ledebourii has selected as pollen donor plant to cross with maternal plants using stigma pollination or cut style pollination methods. Harvesting of produced capsules for ovary slice culture was done after 10, 20 and 40 days. Ovary expansion index, number of produced capsules, capsule weight, and number of cultured slices, number of produced seeds, seed weight and number of germinated seeds were recorded. Results indicated that cultivar had significant influence on all recorded parameters. The number of seeds was significantly affected by capsule harvesting time (p<0.05). In cut style experiment in crosses between Lilium ledebourii and Mannisa, Tressor and Sorbonne 172, 80 and 60 seeds were produced respectively. The rate of seed germination for Mannisa by L. ledebourii was 1.1 percent. In stigma pollination experiment capsules were expanded but none of them produced viable seeds. Totally, in this experiment, use of CSM pollination method was successful for by passing pre-zygotic barriers in lily interspecific crossing.