Alkaloid accumulation in capsules of the selfed and cross-pollinated poppy

In harmony with international regulations the creation of poppy cultivars with high alkaloid content as well as free of alkaloids is in progress. In the course of selection procedures, five poppy cultivars of high chemical diversity, ‘Kheops’, ‘AT, ‘Tebona’, ‘Kék Gemona’ and ‘Przemko’, were selfed and crossed in two successive years (2000‐01). After full ripening, both the biomass production and the alkaloid content of capsules of selfed and crossed plants were determined. When the castrated alkaloid‐free cultivar ‘Przemko’ (accumulating only 0.01 mg/100 g morphine in capsules) was pollinated with cultivars rich in alkaloids, the morphine content of its capsules increased to 0.9‐7.5 mg/100 g‐values. Based on the well‐known biosynthetic background of poppy alkaloids, this can be explained by promotion of (S)‐norcoclaurine synthesis, which seems to be suppressed in alkaloid‐free plants; but tissues of the developing hybrid seeds, which contain a combined gene pool of both alkaloid‐free cultivar and that of the pollen donor plants, release this suppression. The chemical metaxenia also manifested itself in other combinations. In particular, the appearance of narcotine (0.1‐1.1 mg/100 g) in the narcotine‐free cultivars ‘Kheops’, ‘A1’ and ‘Przemko’ can be explained biochemically. If the narcotine‐type plants ‘Kék Gemona’ (accumulating 11.3 mg/g narcotine) were used for pollination, the developing seed tissue, which contains the gene pool of narcotine biosynthesis, might contribute to the suppression of the activity of 1,2‐dehydroreticuline reductase, which leads to the accumulation of narcotine at the cost of morphinanes.