Ploidy manipulation for genetic improvement in some Mediterranean fruit crops

Abstract

I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am extremely grateful to my supervisor, Prof. Maria Antonietta Germanà, for giving me her trust, for her patience, understanding and affection, for her expert guidance, time and dedication in my training and planning, development and completion of this thesis.I would like to thank all the staff and colleagues of the 'Università degli Studi di Palermo' for their technical assistance, help and cooperation during my research work.I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my co-supervisor, Dra Marisa Badenes, for making me feel part of her team, for all her efforts, support, constant encouragement and useful suggestions.I am thankful to Mar Naval for her guidance, patience and persistence during my invaluable experience at the 'Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias' (IVIA).I would like to thank all the working group of the 'Fruit Tree Breeding Department' of the IVIA for their cooperation, hospitality and friendship, and to the 'Tissue Culture' group, especially to Pablo Aleza, for his help and disinterested advice.I am grateful to Manuel Agustí, Carmina Reig, Carlos Mesejo and all the working group of the 'Instituto Agroforestal Mediterráneo' (IAM) for kindly welcoming and supporting me during my stay at the 'Universitat Politècnica de València' (UPV).I am thankful to Jose M. Seguí-Simarro and all the group of the 'Instituto para la Conservación y la Mejora de la Agrodiversidad Valenciana' (COMAV) for their dedication in my training and improvement on the isolated microspores in vitro culture techniques.Special thanks to all my friends and to all the amazing people I have met during these years, who have supported me and led me thus far.Many thanks to my family for having always encouraged and supported me in all my choices and for their great endurance during my long stay away from them.To Ana Luisa, for all the love you gave me, for being always remained at my side, for your endless and invaluable presence. All this would not be possible without you... Todo llega para el que sabe esperar.( Pherograms of the microsatellite markers UDAP-468 profiles of the mother plant (top) and two 'Filippo Ceo' regenerants. The mother plant is heterozygous and carries two alleles, the regenerants show only one of the mother plant alleles. The presence of alternative alleles from the mother plant has been considered as support for the gametic origin of regenerants 51 Table 4.2 Anthers culture responses to the seven genotypes tested 81 Table 4.3 Anthers culture responses to the four culture media tested three months after culture 83 Regarding the almond anther culture, formation of calli and production of embryos was achieved through the direct embryogenesis route. On then other hand, early embryo regeneration is reported, for the first time, from isolated microspore culture of mandarin, 'Mandarino Tardivo di Ciaculli'.Our results report the evidence of gametic embryogenesis and the production of homozygous regenerants in almond and mandarin, two species extremely recalcitrant to micr...