STUDY OF SELF-COMPATIBILITY IN ALMOND PROGENIES FROM SELF-FERTILIZATION BY FLUORESCENE MICROSCOPY AND STYLAR RIBONUCLEASE ASSAY

Self-incompatibility in almond is gametophytic and controlled by a single S-locus with several codominant alleles encoding for specific ribonucleases and a dominant self-fertility allele (Sf) that does not encode for ribonuclease activity.
In most studies of inheritance of self-compatibility, crosses between self-compatible and self-incompatible cultivars were studied.
However, progenies from self-pollination are scarce.
In this work, self-compatibility of 214 seedlings from self-pollination of 30 self-compatible selections, obtained by the CEBAS Almond Breeding Programme, was studied by means of fluorescence microscopy and stylar ribonuclease assay.
Results showed that self-fertilization of self-compatible genotypes guarantees self-compatibility in the offspring and allows homozygous individuals for the Sf allele to be obtained.
Both methods are reliable for assessing self-compatibility in this species.
Furthermore, stylar ribonuclease assay allowed the determination of the S genotype in the progeny and detected some unexpected S-genotypes.

III International Symposium on Pistachios and Almonds

E. Ortega, P. Martínez-Gómez, F. Dicenta, R. Bošković, K.R. Tobutt

Almond, self-compatibility, Prunus dulcis, pollen tube growth, stylar ribonucleases

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2002.591.32