Articles
Breeding of the highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) – the main limitations of releasing northern-type cultivars
Article number
1440_17
Pages
121 – 128
Language
English
Abstract
The blueberry is a popular cultivated crop worldwide.
The highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.), northern (NHB) and southern (SHB) types, are the most important in the fruit production (over 75%). The global production of highbush blueberries is the result of biological progress and the development of new cultivars released in breeding programs.
Applied breeding of this crop is conducted in various countries in the world, including Poland.
The breeding programs are partly or fully financed by public (government), but the majority of funding is from private sources.
Breeding of new NHB cultivars has some limitations compared to SHB type.
It requires longer breeding cycle (12-15 years from the crossing of selected parental forms to releasing a new cultivar) and much higher chilling requirements (>1000 h) compared to the SHB and Rabbiteye types.
In addition, crossing between NHB and SHB parental forms may result obtaining offspring with highly limited frost hardiness.
From the genetics point, Vaccinium species have different ploidy levels: diploid (2n=2x=24 chromosomes), most commonly tetraploid (2n=4x=48) and hexaploid (2n=6x=72), which causes cross-capability barriers to obtaining fruit and seeds from their pollination.
In practice, not all species can be effectively used in the NHB blueberry breeding as many of them are thermophilic.
Moreover, the breeding of the NHB blueberry faces certain limitations related to the sourcing of adequate funding, the genotype cultivation requirements and the licencing policy of public and private programs.
There are also economic limitations in different breeding strategies in which new cultivars are used by public and private programs.
Recently, the first public-private agreements have been developed, which allow the use of parental forms in breeding programs on the basis of a shared royalty profit.
The highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.), northern (NHB) and southern (SHB) types, are the most important in the fruit production (over 75%). The global production of highbush blueberries is the result of biological progress and the development of new cultivars released in breeding programs.
Applied breeding of this crop is conducted in various countries in the world, including Poland.
The breeding programs are partly or fully financed by public (government), but the majority of funding is from private sources.
Breeding of new NHB cultivars has some limitations compared to SHB type.
It requires longer breeding cycle (12-15 years from the crossing of selected parental forms to releasing a new cultivar) and much higher chilling requirements (>1000 h) compared to the SHB and Rabbiteye types.
In addition, crossing between NHB and SHB parental forms may result obtaining offspring with highly limited frost hardiness.
From the genetics point, Vaccinium species have different ploidy levels: diploid (2n=2x=24 chromosomes), most commonly tetraploid (2n=4x=48) and hexaploid (2n=6x=72), which causes cross-capability barriers to obtaining fruit and seeds from their pollination.
In practice, not all species can be effectively used in the NHB blueberry breeding as many of them are thermophilic.
Moreover, the breeding of the NHB blueberry faces certain limitations related to the sourcing of adequate funding, the genotype cultivation requirements and the licencing policy of public and private programs.
There are also economic limitations in different breeding strategies in which new cultivars are used by public and private programs.
Recently, the first public-private agreements have been developed, which allow the use of parental forms in breeding programs on the basis of a shared royalty profit.
Publication
Authors
S. Pluta
Keywords
breeding cycle, public and private programs, NHB and SHB parents, chilling requirements, ploidy level
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