Prospects of breeding improved garlic in the light of its genetic and breeding systems

Summary

Garlic is an obligate apomict which defies all possibilities of genetic improvement through recombinant breeding. Nevertheless, like other bulbous or tuberous plants garlic has accumulated a lot of variation in many characters. Evidence of hybridity exists even at the chromosomal level. Existence of this natural variation, even in respect of the plant part that is economically important, suggests the possibility of improvement. The prospects of exploiting this variation in the face of apomixis are discussed.