Somatic Cell Cybrids and Hybrids in Plant Improvement

Abstract

Somatic hybridization and cybridization have great potential in plant improvement. In this chapter, types of somatic hybrids and cybrids, somatic fusion methods, selection schemes and characterization methods are reviewed. The inheritance patterns of cytoplasmic genomes in plant somatic hybrids and cybrids, as revealed by molecular markers from known examples, are summarized. The exploitation of somatic hybridization and cybridization for the recovery of organelle-encoded traits for plant improvement is discussed, with focus on examples from rice, rapeseed, tomato and potato, citrus and other higher plants.