J M Widholm

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

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Publications (5)13.61 Total impact

  • Article: Interaction of environment and ABA and GA treatments on the maize anther culture response
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    ABSTRACT: Treatments designed to influence abscisic acid (ABA) or gibberellin (GA) concentrations were applied to developing tassels of maize (Zea mays L.) plants in different environments or to anthers in culture to determine the effect on formation of embryo-like structures (ELS). Production of ELS was significantly affected in certain environments when ABA, GA3, ancymidol, or fluridone solutions were pipetted into whorls of field-grown plants approximately 3 days before tassel harvest. In 1996 anthers from 10 M ancymidol-treated plants were most responsive, producing 35 ELS/100 anthers and 50 M GA3-treated plants were least responsive, producing 12 ELS/100 anthers. In 1997 under hotter, drier conditions, anthers from 50 M GA3-treated plants were most responsive, producing 20 ELS/100 anthers and those from 50 M ABA-treated plants were least responsive, producing 2.4 ELS/100 anthers. Anthers from growth chamber plants were significantly more responsive when grown in a 16-h than a 12-h photoperiod. With the 16-h photoperiod the response was significantly greater with a 250 M ABA whorl treatment. With the 12-h photoperiod there was no significant effect from whorl treatments. Modification of the culture medium with added ABA, GA3, ancymidol, or fluridone was generally ineffective, except in 1997 when the response was significantly higher with 1 M ABA added to the culture medium. The results suggest that the maize anther culture response may be influenced by environmental conditions that interact with ABA and GA treatments to donor plants during tassel development.
    Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture 12/2000; 64(1):69-72. · 3.09 Impact Factor
  • Article: Comparison of RAPD and RFLP markers for mapping F2 generations in maize (Zea mays L.)
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    ABSTRACT: The F2 generations from two maize crosses were used to compare the ability of RAPD and RFLP marker systems to create a genetic linkage map. Both RFLPs and RAPDs were shown to provide Mendelian-type markers. Most of the RFLPs (80%) could be placed with a good level of certainty (LOD>4) on the genetic linkage map. However, because of their dominant nature, only between 37% and 59% of the RAPDs could be placed with such a LOD score. The use of combined data from RFLPs and RAPDs increases the level of information provided by RAPDs and allows the creation of a combined RFLP/RAPD genetic linkage map. Thus, the RAPD technique was found to be a powerful method to provide improved probes coverage on a previously created RFLP map and to locate markers linked to chromosomal regions of interest.
    Theoretical and Applied Genetics 08/1996; 93(4):606-612. · 3.30 Impact Factor
  • Article: Mapping the anther culture response genes in maize (Zea mays L.).
    V H Beaumont, T R Rocheford, J M Widholm
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    ABSTRACT: In order to map the genes conditioning the induction of embryos during our anther culture process, we evaluated F2 plants from three different crosses for their anther culture ability and also performed RFLP analysis on these plants. The results showed that six chromosomal regions appear to be associated with the ability to induce embryo-like structures from maize microspores. These regions are located on chromosomes 1 (two regions), 3, 5, 7, and 8. Some of these chromosomes are identical to those found in previous studies and we have localized the regions more precisely. Notably, all chromosome regions identified, except one, are near viviparous mutant loci. Since the viviparous mutations are known to involve the plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA), these results suggest that ABA or its antagonist, gibberellic acid (GA3), might somehow be related to anther culture ability. We also propose some combinations of probes to screen for anther culture ability in the three genotypes studied.
    Genome 11/1995; 38(5):968-75. · 1.65 Impact Factor
  • Article: Ploidy variation of pronamide-treated maize calli during long term culture
    V. H. Beaumont, J. M. Widholm
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    ABSTRACT: Anther-derived calli of corn were treated with 10 M pronamide for 2, 3 and 4 days. The ploidy level of the calli was then evaluated using flow cytometry, at different times after the treatment. Untreated haploid calli did not change in ploidy level for 97 days but by 466 days, there were up to 50% diploid or higher ploidy cells thus showing that spontaneous doubling may occur during corn calli subculture with this genotype. Pronamide treatment did increase the percentage of diploid and tetraploid cells and by 466 days, all of the lines showed an additional change toward higher ploidy levels. This change may be due to spontaneous chromosome doubling or to differential cell cycle times of cells with different ploidy levels. The ploidy level of plants regenerated from the cultures was determined by counting the guard cell chloroplast numbers and the correlation with the ploidy level of the cultures was r2=0.84. These studies show that pronamide treatments can increase haploid maize callus chromosome numbers and that spontaneous chromosome doubling can occur with time in maize callus.
    Plant Cell Reports 08/1993; 12(11):648-651. · 2.27 Impact Factor
  • Article: RFLP analysis to identify putative chromosomal regions involved in the anther culture response and callus formation of maize
    Y. Wan, T. R. Rocheford, J. M. Widholm
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    ABSTRACT: RFLP analysis was performed with anther culture-derived callus lines developed from the maize F1 hybrids Pa91 x FR16 (PF), H99 x Pa91 (HP) and H99 x FR16 (HF). Relatively evenly spaced RFLP markers were selected to cover the maize genome with 52, 58 and 35 RFLP markers for the PF, HP and HF callus lines, respectively. The results from populations PF and HP combined with limited information from HF showed that six chromosomal regions on chromosomes 1, 2 (two regions), 3, 6 and 8 appear to be associated with the formation of embryo-like structures (ELSs) from microspores or the subsequent formation of regenerable callus from the ELSs. Regions at the end of the long arm of chromosome 2 and on the long arm of chromosome 8 appear to be associated with ELS formation, and the other regions appear to be associated with either ELS or regenerable callus formation or both. Certain regions that we have identified are the same as those found in other studies to be important for friable, embryogenic callus formation (chromosomes 1 and 3 and near the centromere of 2) and for ESL formation (chromosomes 1 and 3). This study has provided evidence for the genetic basis of the maize anther culture response and callus formation.
    Theoretical and Applied Genetics 10/1992; 85(2):360-365. · 3.30 Impact Factor

Institutions

  • 1992–1996
    • University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
      Urbana, IL, USA