Strategies for garlic (Allium sativum L.) breeding: challenges and achievements
The demand for garlic products with specific characteristics and constant increase in garlic production require the breeding of this crop and its adaptation to different climatic conditions.
Commercial garlic varieties are propagated vegetatively due to their complete sterility. New varieties have been selected only from existing living collections, natural or induced mutations.
Garlic fertility has been restored in the last decades, and research and breeding have undergone rapid progress.
Currently, breeding in garlic is developing in three main directions: 1) conventional vegetative selection from variable germplasm collections; 2) breeding and selection from sexually-reproduced populations; and 3) employment of biotechnological tools.
Novel methods of genome editing and marker-assisted breeding are not available in garlic yet, and therefore, fertility restoration, hybridization, and seed production are the most important goals in future breeding.
The variability of seed-producing garlic lines is already available, but breeding and propagation from seed are still far from the commercial stage.
Large investments are required for the development of seed-propagated garlic and breeding via hybridization, but the advantages of this approach for the future improvement of modern garlic are evident.
Cleaning from viruses and diseases and in vitro propagation of outstanding varieties can improve the existing garlic cultivars.
Kamenetsky-Goldstein, R. and Shemesh-Mayer, E. (2024). Strategies for garlic (Allium sativum L.) breeding: challenges and achievements. Acta Hortic. 1398, 53-64
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2024.1398.8
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2024.1398.8
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2024.1398.8
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2024.1398.8
Allium sativum, clonal propagation, fertility restoration, hybridization, in vitro propagation, sexual reproduction
English