Abstract
Simple SummaryThis review compiles the most relevant advances made in the production of doubled haploid plants in eggplant, the application of doubled haploid lines in breeding programs, and the future perspectives for the development of alternative technologies for doubled haploid generation in this species.Eggplant is a solanaceous crop cultivated worldwide for its edible fruit. Eggplant breeding programs are mainly aimed to the generation of F1 hybrids by crossing two highly homozygous, pure lines, which are traditionally obtained upon several self crossing generations, which is an expensive and time consuming process. Alternatively, fully homozygous, doubled haploid (DH) individuals can be induced from haploid cells of the germ line in a single generation. Several attempts have been made to develop protocols to produce eggplant DHs principally using anther culture and isolated microspore culture. Eggplant could be considered a moderately recalcitrant species in terms of ability for DH production. Anther culture stands nowadays as the most valuable technology to obtain eggplant DHs. However, the theoretical possibility of having plants regenerated from somatic tissues of the anther walls cannot be ruled out. For this reason, the use of isolated microspores is recommended when possible. This approach still has room for improvement, but it is largely genotype-dependent. In this review, we compile the most relevant advances made in DH production in eggplant, their application to breeding programs, and the future perspectives for the development of other, less genotype-dependent, DH technologies.
Highlights
Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), known as brinjal, aubergine, or Guinea squash, is a widely cultivated species for its edible fruits
This has resulted in the generation of new varieties and hybrids, which entail a continuous rise in its production [5], which has doubled compared to twenty years ago with just a slight increase in cultivation area [4]
In the first attempt to establish an isolated microspore culture protocol in eggplant, isolated late uninucleated microspores and young pollen grains belonging to three different F1 cultivars were subjected to a combination of both starvation and heat stress, which resulted in the generation of microspore-derived structures with an efficiency higher than by anther culture-based protocols [19]
Summary
Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), known as brinjal, aubergine, or Guinea squash, is a widely cultivated species for its edible fruits. Due to its economic importance, eggplant has been the focus of breeding programs This has resulted in the generation of new varieties and hybrids, which entail a continuous rise in its production [5], which has doubled compared to twenty years ago with just a slight increase in cultivation area [4]. Protocols for DH production have been described for almost 400 species [11] through the application of different in vivo and in vitro techniques such as pollination with irradiated pollen, interspecific and intraspecific crosses, crossing with natural or artificially produced haploid inducer lines, ovary or ovule in vitro culture, and isolated anther or microspore in vitro culture. Eggplant microspores are in general able to be induced to embryogenesis and generate haploid or DH embryos, they are still far from the efficiency of tobacco or other model species like Brassica napus in terms of embryogenic response. Effect of light intensity over donor plants and in vitro microspore density in the embryogenic response
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