Abstract
In the present paper, we evaluated the implementation of a seed production system based on the exploitation of male sterility on coffee. We studied specifically the combination between CIR-SM01 and Marsellesa® (a Sarchimor line), which provides a hybrid population called Starmaya. We demonstrated that the establishment of seed garden under natural pollination is possible and produces a sufficient amount of hybrid seeds to be multiplied efficiently and economically. As expected for F1 hybrid, the performances of Starmaya are highly superior to conventional cultivars. However, we observed some heterogeneity on Starmaya cultivar in the field. We confirmed by genetic marker analysis that the off-types were partly related to the heterozygosity of the CIR-SM01 clone and could not be modified. Regarding the level of rust resistance of Starmaya cv., we saw that it could be improved if Marsellesa was more fully fixed genetically. If so, we should be able to decrease significantly the percentage of rust incidence of Starmaya from 15 to 5%, which would be quite acceptable at a commercial level. Starmaya represents the proof of concept for the mass propagation of Arabica F1 hybrid seeds using male sterility. Finally, we discuss the possibility to increase the number of hybrid varieties produced by seed, exploring some initiatives to identify male sterility markers to induce male sterility on any conventional cultivar. This would definitively open up the universe of known Arabica cultivars to be used in breeding new F1 hybrids.
Highlights
Due to self-fertilization of the allotetraploid Coffea arabica (2n = 4X = 44) species, Arabica cultivars are traditionally disseminated by seeds
Based on the results obtained from the CIR-SM01 and Marsellesa® seed garden field, we found that natural pollination was efficient for producing Starmaya F1 hybrid seeds
Only a few micropropagation laboratories in the world are able to commercially produce such Arabica F1 hybrids, and none of them produces more than 2 million somatic embryo-derived plantlets per year, which represents a key constraint for the democratization of using such hybrids
Summary
Like many other hybrid plants, C. arabica F1 hybrids possess genetic and agronomic advantages (Gallais, 2009), such as higher and more stable yields, F1 Hybrid Produced by Seed more vigor, disease resistance, better cup quality, and adaptability to agroforestry systems (Bertrand et al, 2005; Bertrand et al, 2011). These authors showed that F1 hybrids produced 11–47% higher yield than the best cultivars along with significantly higher or identical 100-bean weight and performed identically for fertility. Several methods exist to multiply these new F1 hybrids on a large scale
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