1990 : COMMERCIAL RELEASE IN FRANCE OF ANDREAS, THE FIRST ASPARAGUS ALL-MALE F₁ HYBRID ! (CO-BREEDING INRA-DARBONNE-VILMORIN)

The methods for obtaining the two homozygous parents, and the agronomical performances of Andréas, the first asparagus all-male F₁ hybrid, are described here.

Andréas is the first outcome of the log term breeding programme of INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique).

It is an all-male F₁ hybird, the two parents of which are homozygous (dihaploids).

Its female parent originated from an haploid plant found in a polyembryonic seed (Thévenin, 1968). After chromosome doubling, the dihaploid female was submitted to a series of 7 back-crosses to obtain a pure homozygous line propagated by seeds (Thévenin and Doré, 1976). The female plants of this pure line are only used to establish the foundation seed block.

Its male parent originated from one haploid embryo obtained by in vitro anther culture.
Through spontaneous chromosome doubling, a supermale, homozygous at all loci, was obtained (Doré, 1974, 1989). This plant is propagated by in vitro cloning.

This hybird (described as nº 61) was evaluated in France in multilocated trials for more than ten years (Corriols, 1985).

Thanks to its two homozygous parents, Andréas is an homogeneous F₁ hybrid and thanks to its supermale parent, Andréas is an all-male F₁ hybrid.

Its main characteristics are:

– a very regular high yielding (figs 1–6),

VII International Asparagus Symposium

L. Corriols, C. Doré, C. Rameau

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1990.271.33