Chromosome doubling of Cichorium intybus L. haploids through protoplast regeneration

Abstract

Industrial chicory (Cichorium intybus L.) is mainly grown for inulin production. To enhance production and uniformity, hybrid cultivars are preferred. Therefore, a controlled pollination system and homozygous parental lines are needed. The most desirable pollination control system is cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS). A new, naturally induced CMS has been reported by Van der Veken et al. (2018). To regenerate homozygous parental lines of modern industrial chicory cultivars, different haploid inducing techniques have been compared and evaluated. The only successful method was intergeneric hybridization with Cicerbita alpina (Dore et al., 1996), yielding haploid plants. Here we show that protoplast regeneration is an efficient tool for chromosome doubling of these haploids. The presented method can be used for chromosome doubling of slowly developing haploids.