Sugar Beet (Beta vulgaris L.)

Abstract

Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris) is the main source of sugar production in most of the European countries. The total world area of sugar beet is 8,740,000 ha, of which 7,337,000 ha are in Europe. Sugar beet belongs to the family Chenopodiaceae, and is a typically biannual plant. It is highly heterogenous, the result of complex crosses and breeding between root and leaf varieties. This, plus the cross-pollinating character, cause various problems when using conventional methods such as heterosis (on the basis of cytoplasmic male sterility), inbreeding, polyploidy, phytopathology, interspecific hybridization, etc., in breeding research.