Articles
Breakthroughs the in developing of new orchid cultivars
Article number
1334_49
Pages
397 – 402
Language
English
Abstract
Phalaenopsis orchids are widely produced year-round in a large quantity due to their easy spiking response under proper cooling temperature.
Since diverse flower colors and pot size of desirable horticultural traits are already available in the market, there is an urgent need to breed novel hybrids to meet the demands from diverse markets.
Our breeding program was aimed at breeding double or multiple spikes with novel traits. Phalaenopsis species and interspecific hybrids that grow multiple spikes and/or compact leaf type have been used to create intermediate interspecific hybrids, including P. micholitzii, P. tetraspis, and P. venosa, which were cross hybridized with commercial cultivars to breed new hybrids.
Large flower size and heavy petal substance are usually due to polyploidy in hybrids.
Sporad-type analysis of pollen mother cells was performed to exploit the production of unreduced gametes and successfully obtain a high percentage of polyploidy progeny following cross hybridization.
Cultivars derived from P. amabilis (P. aphrodite) are traded in Taiwan at a rate of about five million pots every year.
One drawback of young plants derived from massive micropropagation is the development of intervein chlorosis in leaves and aberrant flower shape in most P. amabilis cultivars.
We have collected several distant P. amabilis cultivars/lines and after successful cross hybridization many new cultivars with low intervein chlorosis frequency were selected and licensed to orchid companies.
To promote a high efficiency in breeding we carried genome and transcriptome analyses, and as a result it was found that the big lip mutant trait may be caused by alternative splicing in the MADS box gene PhAGL6b. The study of the expression and regulation of this gene may contribute clues that elucidate lip formation and lead to the development of suitable molecular markers for breeding big lip hybrids in the future.
Since diverse flower colors and pot size of desirable horticultural traits are already available in the market, there is an urgent need to breed novel hybrids to meet the demands from diverse markets.
Our breeding program was aimed at breeding double or multiple spikes with novel traits. Phalaenopsis species and interspecific hybrids that grow multiple spikes and/or compact leaf type have been used to create intermediate interspecific hybrids, including P. micholitzii, P. tetraspis, and P. venosa, which were cross hybridized with commercial cultivars to breed new hybrids.
Large flower size and heavy petal substance are usually due to polyploidy in hybrids.
Sporad-type analysis of pollen mother cells was performed to exploit the production of unreduced gametes and successfully obtain a high percentage of polyploidy progeny following cross hybridization.
Cultivars derived from P. amabilis (P. aphrodite) are traded in Taiwan at a rate of about five million pots every year.
One drawback of young plants derived from massive micropropagation is the development of intervein chlorosis in leaves and aberrant flower shape in most P. amabilis cultivars.
We have collected several distant P. amabilis cultivars/lines and after successful cross hybridization many new cultivars with low intervein chlorosis frequency were selected and licensed to orchid companies.
To promote a high efficiency in breeding we carried genome and transcriptome analyses, and as a result it was found that the big lip mutant trait may be caused by alternative splicing in the MADS box gene PhAGL6b. The study of the expression and regulation of this gene may contribute clues that elucidate lip formation and lead to the development of suitable molecular markers for breeding big lip hybrids in the future.
Authors
F.C. Chen, J.Z. Huang
Keywords
interspecific hybrids, spike number, leaf intervein chlorosis, genome and transcriptome, big lip
Groups involved
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