Male sterility applications in Allium

The subgenus Allium section Allium includes economically important species such as onion (Allium cepa L.), leek (A. ampeloprasum var. porrum L.) and chives (A. schoenoprasum L.). These species have a biennial habit and many cultivars are open pollinated; and high levels of heterozygosity must be maintained.
The Allium umbel consists of a few, to hundreds of perfect flowers of per umbel.
These flowers are too small for synthetic pollination studies and due to the large-scale emasculation it is not practical so the development of hybrid cultivars is economically feasible using systems of cytoplasmic-genic male sterility (CMS). Male sterile plants, which have not got any fertile pollen, incapable of self-pollination so any seed produced must result from cross-pollination. Allium hybrid production requires the development of male-sterile, maintainer and pollinator lines with good specific combination ability.
This review outlines the using male sterility feature in hybrid breeding program for Alliums especially for onions.

International Symposium on Biotechnology and Other Omics in Vegetable Science

E. Cebeci, F. Hancı

Alliums, male sterility, seed production, onion, Allium cepa L., leek, chives, bunching onion

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2016.1145.8