The male fertility of primary and further generation dihaploids ofSolanum tuberosum

Summary

Male sterility in dihaploids ofSolanum tuberosum is often a barrier to their utilization in breeding and genetical studies. Although the male fertility of primary dihaploids (obtained directly from tetraploids) was generally low, a few were produced by the author which produced seed when used as pollen parents on female fertile dihaploids. The population of further generation dihaploids (from dihaploid intercrosses) produced from the showed a marked improvement in male fertility. Comparative data from measurements of different aspects of male fertility in dihaploids are presented. These showed that the weight of pollen per anther, the percentage of (iodine) stainable pollen and the number of seeds per berry were greater in further generation dihaploids than in primary dihaploids.

It is suggested that interspecific crosses using dihaploids are not necessarily useful for increasing male fertility in diploid potatoes. The advantages of breeding at the diploid level withinS. tuberosum are discussed. Rare male-fertile dihaploids could be used to generate diploids with a high frequency of male fertility. These could then be used to cross with any other flowering dihaploids to combine characters at the diploid level, so exploiting the simpler genetic ratios associated with disomic inheritance.