XXIIIrd International Eucarpia symposium, Section Ornamentals ...

BREEDING OF ORNAMENTAL PLANTS
THROUGH INTERSPECIFIC HYBRIDIZATION
USING ADVANCED TECHNIQUES WITH A
SPECIAL FOCUS ON DIANTHUS, PRIMULA,
COSMOS AND KALANCHOE
In ornamental plants, interspecific hybridization has successfully been used to produce
novel cultivars with useful traits of both parents and to incorporate desirable traits of one
species to another. Advanced breeding techniques like embryo rescue, polyploidization,
protoplast fusion and molecular cytogenetic methods are used to produce and
characterize interspecific hybrids in various taxonomic groups.. In this presentation,
recent advances and problems in interspecific hybridization are described with special
references to the use of embryo culture techniques for rescuing the abortive hybrid
embryos and to the use of artificial polyploidization techniques for restoring the fertility of
the interspecific hybrids. Some interesting topics related to interspecific hybridizations
are also described such as the production of unexpected ploidy plants due to unreduced
gamete formation and spontaneous chromosome doubling during in vitro culture in
Dianthus, Primula, Cosmos and Kalanchoe. Some of the products of these interspecific
hybridizations have successfully been commercialized directly or used as the
germplasms for further breeding of novel ornamental crops.
L9
Masahiro Mii
Graduate School of
Horticulture, Chiba
University, 648 Matsudo,
Matsudo, Chiba 271-8510,
Japan
miil@faculty.chiba-u.jp
Session Interspecific hybridization 25