Characterization of female and male sterility in sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.)

Sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) is self-incompatible and a highly heterozygous species. Male and female sterility have not been reported in sweet cherry, but androsterility has been described in other Prunus fruit tree species and in other Rosaceae species. Highly homozygous sweet cherry plant materials, developed from the self-pollination of two self-compatible sweet cherry accessions, were observed to show female and/or male sterility. Sterility in these plant materials is likely due to inbreeding depression. The objective of this work is to characterize female and male sterility in these populations and to investigate flower and pollen development in the species. Initial results of this work are presented here. These include the preliminary phenotyping of female and male sterility in these populations by visual inspection, fruit drop and set assays, and microscopic observations of pollen development. These experiments have initially allowed identifying female and male sterile trees in both populations, and to set up a pollen viability assay through Alexander staining that will allow precise phenotyping of pollen sterility in both families.