Catherine Li

Perennial flax (Linum spp.) is a novel crop similar to cultivated flax (Linum usitatissimum) in the Forever Green Initiative, whose mission is to develop crops that provide ecosystem services and economic opportunities for Minnesota’s farmers. The University of Minnesota perennial flax breeding program is evaluating multiple species for domestication, including L. austriacum, L. lewisii, and L. perenne, which are undergoing assessments of key agronomic and horticultural traits including seed size, oil content, shattering, floral characteristics, and plant growth habit. Each species is expected to possess some, but not all of the desired traits. Interspecific crosses to transfer those traits between species could vastly accelerate the domestication process. Viable interspecific hybrids have been produced in a limited study; however, these results will need to be confirmed in the current germplasm. Interspecific crosses may encounter many challenges and barriers; thus, it is essential to minimize failure due to external factors. To ensure the best chances at successful interspecific crosses, parental plants need to have viable pollen. Pollen stainability is a quick and reliable method to assess pollen viability, and thus male fertility. In this study, 0.2% aniline blue in 80% propionic acid was used to stain pollen for analysis under a light microscope. A one-way ANOVA showed that the effect of species [F(65, 6) = 8.256, p = 0.000] and genotype [F(65, 8) = 3.776, p ≤ 0.001] on pollen stainability were significant. The results will help make informed parental choices for future crosses reducing failure due to pollen viability.