Interspecific hybrids between three eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) cultivars and two wild species (Solanum torvum Sw. and Solanum sisymbriifolium Lam.)

Abstract

ThreeGreek eggplant cultivars, 'Langada', 'Tsakoniki' and 'Emi' (2« = 24), were crossed with two wild species {Solanum torvum Sw., 2n = 24 and Solanum sisymbriifolium Lam., 2n = 24). Ovules isolated 15-27 days after polhnation were cultured in a modified MS medium at 24°C and a 16h photoperiod. Fifty days later, the ovules were dissected and the interspecific embryos were cultured in the same medium. Interspecific hybrids were achieved only from crosses between the eggplant cultivars and S. torvum. The hybridity of the putative interspecific Fi hybrid {Solanum melongena x S. torvum) was confirmed by using morphological and biochemical (isozyme isocitrate dehydrogenase A, phosphoglucomutase A, phosphoglucose isomerase B, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase A, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase B) markers. The F, plants ('Langada' x S. torvum) were selfpollinated and backcrossed to both parents. Fruits, however, were produced only when the F, hybrid was backcrossed as female with the eggplant cultivar 'Langada'.

Assessing diversity among traditional Greek and foreign eggplant cultivars using molecular markers and morphometrical descriptors

“…Tsakoniki (short cylindrical fruits with purple stripes), Lagada (long cylindrical purple fruits), Skoutari (medium cylindrical purple fruits), EMI (large spherical purple fruits) and Santorini (large spherical white fruits), which are adapted to the local environment having an excellent texture and cooking quality. These cultivars have not been subjected to intensive breeding so far, and are available through local markets, where the fruits of the heirloom local varieties are highly appreciated (Bletsos et al, 1998a(Bletsos et al, , 1998b.…”

Current status in production and utilization of dihaploids from somatic hybrids between eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) and its wild relatives

“…The re lated wild spe cies show re sistance to pests (Daunay et al 1991, Daunay et al 1993) and thereby they rep re sent a source of de sirable traits for egg plant im prove ment. At pres ent, there is an ef fort in de vel op ing re sis tant cultivars of egg plant by iden ti fy ing and trans fer ring traits from the wild rel a tives into the cul ti vated egg plants by sex ual (Bletsos et al 1998) and so matic hy brid ization (Sihachakr et al 1994). In Solanaceae veg e table crops, re sis tance to soil-born dis eases was intro duced from wild spe cies into cultivars through so matic hy brid iza tion in to mato (Lefrancois et al 1993) and po tato (Fock et al 2000) as well as it was suc cess fully ap plied to ob tain interspecific hy brids be tween egg plant and its wild rel a tives (Sihachakr et al 1994, Collonnier et al 2001a, Rotino et al 1998).…”

Genetics and Genomics of Cultivated Eggplants and Wild Relatives

“…melongena (Bletsos et al, 1998;Kumchai et al, 2013;Kouassi et al, 2016;Plazas et al, 2016). No sexual hybrids have ever been reported between S. melongena and S. sisymbriifolium, while interspecific hybrids obtained through embryo rescue of the cross S. melongena x S. torvum were highly sterile and no backcrosses have been reported to date .…”

“…Based on chloroplast DNA RFLPs (Sakata et al, 1991), ISSRs (Isshiki et al, 2008), AFLPs and nrITS sequences (Meyer et al, 2012b) Levin et al (2013), Weese and Bohs (2010) and Särkinen et al (2013) using several nuclear and plastid DNA sequences found that S. aethiopicum and S. macrocarpon were phylogenetically closer among them than to S. melongena. Studies based on the species inter-fertility highlighted that interspecific hybrids between S. melongena and S. aethiopicum as well as backcrosses could be easily obtained (Daunay et al, 1991;Prohens et al, 2012;Rotino et al, 2014); on the other hand, although hybrids between S. melongena and S. macrocarpon were obtained (Daunay et al, 1991;Bletsos et al, 1998;Khan et al, 2013), in most cases they were high sterile and only the backcross of a tetraploid hybrid between the two species with S. melongena was successful (Khan et al, 2013). The difficulty in obtaining the hybrids between these two species, despite being phylogenetically close (Sakata and Lester, 1997;Vorontsova et al, 2013), might be caused by some chromosomal rearrangement or other hybridization barriers.…”

“…On the contrary, studies based on the species inter-fertility affirmed that interspecific hybrids between common and gboma eggplant are more challenging to obtain and with higher level of sterility compared to common and scarlet eggplant (Daunay et al, 1991;Bletsos et al, 1998Khan et al, 2013;Rotino et al, 2014), probably due to some chromosomal rearrangement or hybridization barriers.…”