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ARS Home » Midwest Area » East Lansing, Michigan » Sugarbeet and Bean Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #141903

Title: REGISTRATION OF SR96 AND SR97 SMOOTH-ROOT SUGARBEET GERMPLASM WITH HIGH SUCROSE

Author
item MCGRATH, JON

Submitted to: Crop Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/31/2003
Publication Date: 11/1/2003
Citation: McGrath, J.M. 2003. Registration of SR96 and SR97 smooth-root sugarbeet germplasm with high sucrose. Crop Science. 43:2314-2315.

Interpretive Summary: Soil tare is dirt that adheres to sugar beet roots at harvest and is transported to the factory. Disposing of this soil presents many problems including costs of hauling and landfilling dirt, or transporting back to growers fields where it may spread sugar beet disease causing organisms to uninfested fields. One of the major impediments to using smooth-root beets, which adhere less soil on the roots and thus reduce economic costs and improve agricultural sustainability, has been the general low levels of sucrose in their roots compared to commercial varieties. The new germplasm releases solve this problem as their sucrose percentages are now on par with commercial varieties, and they also retain significant disease resistance to most of the major pests and pathogens of sugar beet faced in the Great Lakes growing region. It is expected these lines will find wide use in creating low soil tare commercial varieties for this region, and worldwide.

Technical Abstract: Sugarbeet germplasm SR96 and SR97 are being released to industry for use in creating sugarbeet hybrids with smooth-root (SR), low soil tare characteristics. Low soil tare reduces industry costs by reducing the amount of harvested soil and the attendant soil disposal costs and reducing the spread of soil borne diseases. Previous SR releases have shown one to five percentage points lower sucrose concentrations than SR96 and SR97. Both SR96 and SR97 are diploid and multigerm and each was simultaneously selected for smooth-root and high sucrose over a number of generations. SR96 and SR97 each have similar sucrose percentages, but were derived from different high sucrose source populations combined with smooth-root donor SP85700. SR96 is an F6 population from an initial cross of SP85700 with a high sucrose commercial breeding line. SR97 was selected over four generations from a composite population whose parents included SP85700, L19, L53, and US35. Both SR96 and SR97 are expected to be used in developing sugarbeet hybrids with economically recoverable sucrose levels with smooth-root, low soil tare characteristics.