Aspects of fusion combining ability of dihaploidSolanum tuberosum L.: influence of the cytoplasm

Summary Creation from 4x hybrid clones from protoplast fusion of 2x clones of potato was evaluated. Besides combined nuclear genomes, composition of the cytoplasm significantly influenced the phenotypic traits of hybrid clones. To ascertain the influence of parental cytoplasm on the success of protoplast fusion and regeneration of hybrid plants, data from 74 fusion combinations of 50 dihaploid clones were analyzed. The majority of dihaploid breeding clones belonged to the cytoplasm types Wα, Tβ and Wγ. When the closely related mt types α, β and γ were used, fusion combinations had a better combining ability compared with more distantly related cytoplasms δ and ⃛. Fusions containing the same mitochondrial type (homofusions) were not superior to closely related mitochondrial types. However, homofusions of cytoplasm type Wα yielded significantly more hybrids than homofusions of type Tβ. In general, parental cytoplasm types had little impact on the fusion combining behaviour. Thus the cytoplasm type of the fusion parents is not a suitable marker for predicting the combining ability in protoplast fusion experiments.