PEACH BREEDING PROGRAMME FOR EARLY RIPENING, LOW CHILLING REQUIREMENT CULTIVARS: EMBRYO RESCUE AND SOMATIC EMBRYOGENESIS

The typical climatic characteristics of the Sicilian areas, together with the local genetic pool available, allow peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch.] production for more than seven months (mid April to end November). For the late ripening season, peach production is based on the local germplasm, but for the early ripening season there are no native varieties available.
Therefore, a breeding program has been undertaken.
One of the main goals of this breeding programme is widening the varietal range of the early ripening cultivars characterized by low chilling requirement.
To reach this objective, genotypes with these characters are used as parents in crosses.
In vitro embryo rescue is necessary when the seed parent is an early ripening cultivar.
Success of immature embryo culture depends on several factors, particularly plant genotype, embryo development stage and media composition.
In this study, the effects of mineral salt composition, carbon source and growth regulators in the medium and the effect of genotype on the in vitro germination of immature ‘Flordastar’ embryos were investigated.
Direct and indirect somatic embryogenesis were also observed from immature embryos obtained from the ‘Armking’ x ‘Flordastar’ crosses.
Secondary embryogenesis was obtained as well.

V International Peach Symposium

M.L. Mancuso, T. Caruso, M.A. Germanà

peach, embryo rescue, somatic embryogenesis

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2002.592.16