Distant hybridisation and doubled-haploidy breeding

Abstract

The combination of genomes from diverse genetic backgrounds through wide hybridisation has become very important during the present days of global climate change. However, in some cases it is not possible to recoverhybrids with genomes from both the parental species. The elimination of whole chromosome complement of one of the parents from the wide hybrids, that is, uniparental chromosome elimination, has acted as a boon to the crop breeders for rapid genetic upgradation of the crop varieties. This chapter depicts various chromosome elimination approaches of doubled-haploidy breeding in barley, wheat, oats, triticale and potato. The chapter also presents the possible mechanisms of chromosome elimination including its advantages to the other DH breeding systems in crop plants. It also covers various investigations undertaken throughout the world and the efficiency of variouschromosome elimination systems in induction of haploids.