GENIC MALE STERILITY AND ITS APPLICATION IN TOMATO (LYCOPERSICON ESCULENTUM MILL.) HYBRID BREEDING AND HYBRID SEED PRODUCTION

For the first time male sterility was used in tomato hybrid seed production in 1945 by Prof.
C.M. Rick and up to the present this phenomenon is still recognized as a useful trait in breeding programs that address facilitation of the process of hybrid seed production.
To this purpose, different genes controlling male sterility have been studied and several ideas and systems for their efficacious application in plant breeding have been developed and tested.
Based on anther development and phenotype, the male sterile mutants are classified into structural, sporogenous and functional types.
When the years and the experience accumulated it was found that when used in hybrid seed production, each type of male sterility in tomato exhibited not only significant advantages but also significant disadvantages.
Data and findings resulting from some 30 years of investigations on different types of male sterility, development of male sterile seed parents and their use in tomato hybrid breeding and hybrid seed production are presented and discussed in this paper.

III Balkan Symposium on Vegetables and Potatoes

B. Atanassova

genic male sterility, hybrid seed production, tomato

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2007.729.3