Overcoming Hybrid Lethality Induced by Chromosomal Instability in an Interspecific Hybrid of Genus Nicotiana

Hybrid lethality is a type of reproductive isolation in which hybrids die before maturation, due to the interaction between the two causative genes derived from each of the hybrid parents. The interspecific hybrid of Nicotiana suaveolens x Nicotiana tabacum is a model plant for studies of hybrid lethality. In this cross, most hybrid seedlings die, but rare individuals grow normally and mature. Separately, a technique for producing mature hybrids by artificial culture has been developed. However, the mechanism by which hybrids overcome lethality, either spontaneously or by artificial culture, remains unclear. In the present study, we found that some hybrids that overcome lethality, either spontaneously or by artificial culture, lack the distal part of the Q chromosome, a region that includes the gene responsible for lethality. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction results suggested that the distal deletion of the Q chromosome, detected in some hybrid seedlings that overcome lethality, is caused by reciprocal translocations between homoeologous chromosomes. These results indicated that the chromosomal instability during meiosis of the amphidiploid N . tabacum and during artificial culturing of hybrid seedlings is involved in overcoming hybrid lethality in interspecific hybrids of the genus Nicotiana .