To integrate the gene pool of a wild species (primarily diploid) into a cultivated pool (primarily tetraploid), a crossing between a dihaploid cultivated rose and a hybrid of Rosa wichurana allowed to obtain interspecific diploid hybrids that produced 2n pollen grains. A return to a tetraploid level sought by breeders can then be considered using sexual polyploidization, obtained by crossing a tetraploid cultivated rose with these hybrids. Application of a high-temperature regime led to a small but significant increase in the percentage of 2n pollen grains in these hybrids of up to 4.6%. This result was obtained by applying high temperatures close to 32°C during the day to plants cultivated in a glasshouse during recurrent cycles of bloom. Crosses were made between an unreleased tetraploid hybrid tea rose, as a female, and the diploid hybrid that produces the most 2n pollen grains. Tetraploid (42.1%) and triploid (57.9%) offspring were obtained. The use of these 2n pollen grains of the first division restitution type should facilitate the introgression of complex traits of interest.
Key words: 2n gametesRose is the most economically important ornamental crop worldwide because of its popularity as a garden, landscape and potted plant, and as cut flower (Gudin 2000). The genus Rosa subgenus Rosa comprises ten sections and more than 200 species (Wissemann 2003, Foug ere-Danezan et al. 2015. Ma€ ıa and Venard (1976) and Berninger (1992) showed that <10 species belonging to three sections are at the origin of roses (Rosa hybrida L.) cultivated today. Many cultivated roses are tetraploid (2n = 4x = 28), whereas many wild species are generally diploid (2n = 2x = 14).Rose breeders have attempted to enrich the variability of the gene pool of cultivated roses by introducing germplasm of new diploid wild species. Many interspecific hybridizations between tetraploid rose cultivars and wild diploid species were carried out, but produced triploids that were generally sterile, making it very difficult to generate additional generations (Wylie 1955). To integrate the variability of diploid species into the gene pool of cultivated roses, a haploidization programme of cultivated roses was developed in the 1990s by Meynet et al. (1994) that consisted of reducing the ploidy level of cultivated rose from tetraploid to diploid. This programme involved three steps: (i) producing dihaploids (diploid) from tetraploid rose cultivars, (ii) creating progeny of interspecific diploid hybrids developed by crossing dihaploid cultivated rose cultivars with wild diploid species and (iii) returning to the tetraploid level (ploidy level most frequently encountered in the cultivated rose) (Crespel and Meynet 2003).Only the first two steps of this programme were carried out. Dihaploids of tetraploid rose cultivars were obtained by parthenogenesis in situ induced by irradiated pollen and immature embryo rescue techniques in vitro (Meynet et al. 1994). The study of their gametogenesis revealed different meiotic anomalies such as abnormal spind...