Exploitation of Male Sterility for Heterosis Breeding in Vegetable Crops

Abstract

The phenomenon of heterosis is extensively utilized in vegetable crops for the exploitation of hybrid vigor. Presently, hybrids are popular in majority of the vegetable crops due to their uniform shape, size, color and quality, providing better returns to the growers. The main worry regarding production of hybrid seeds is the scarcity and high cost of specialized labor, which increasingly raises the cost of hybrid seed production, especially for solanaceous crops, where manual emasculation and pollination mechanisms still play an essential role. Thus, there is need to exploit different mechanisms which results in decreasing the cost of hybrids. Among these mechanisms, male sterility is very efficient and economic method for the large-scale F1 seed production. Many male sterile mutants have also been discovered which eliminates the need of tedious emasculation process. Undesirable type of plants at the early stage of growth can be identified by using certain marker genes and thus facilitates the production of hybrid seeds. Exploiting heterosis in vegetable crops is more profitable as it increases the uniformity, resistance against various insect-pests and yield.