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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Madison, Wisconsin » Vegetable Crops Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #105414

Title: THE REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY OF THE POTATO AND ITS IMPLICATION FOR BREEDING

Author
item Hanneman Jr, Robert

Submitted to: American Journal of Potato Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/1/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Reproductive biology refers to the biology of fertilization and development of the seed. It involves the production of male gametes (pollen) and female gametes (eggs) and the nutritive tissue (endosperm) for the developing embryo. It involves the mechanisms leading to their formation and the barriers that prevent these processes. It is really the study of how plants reproduce themselves by seed. This paper is a comprehensive review of these processes as they apply to potato, but their application reaches beyond potato to all other crops reproducing sexually by seed. Having this information in a single publication should be very helpful to the genetics and breeding community. It should stimulate new ideas and new approaches to the problems faced by reproductive biology. It also includes a discussion of the application of the findings to potato improvement. The linkage between basic research on reproductive biology and its imaginative application to crop improvement is evident and exciting. The author hope that the material is presented in such a way as to invite others to appreciate these concepts and apply them in new ways in research and breeding. The final result may be more research in this important area, as well as making the breeding processes more efficient, opening new germplasm to more effective utilization in improvement.

Technical Abstract: Haploidy, 2n gametes, synaptic mutants, stylar barriers, endosperm barriers, Endosperm Balance Number (EBN) and its relationship to 2n gametes, stylar barriers, disomic genetics, are a part of the reproductive biology of potato. All are tools for isolation and preservation of a species identity, as well. Haploidy and 2n gametes allow for interploidy gene transfer. Parallel spindles and synaptic mutants permit the transfer of entire parental genomes intact and are powerful tools in potato breeding. Stylar barriers provide a mechanism for interspecific isolation via unilateral incompatibility. Incongruity has also been invoked. Endosperm barriers have been discussed in terms of EBN, which requires a 2 maternal: I paternal ratio in the endosperm for successful seed development. Genetic models suggesting three unlinked genes in a threshold-like system and a two gene system have been proposed. A relationship may exist between EBN and stylar barriers. The use and manipulation of 2n gametes, stylar barriers and EBN have been used effectively in germplasm trunsfer from species to cultivated potato.