This is the first report about regeneration of oil pumpkins haploid plants through induced parthenogenesis. The method rely on flowers isolation, their pollination with pollen irradiated with X-rays, in vitro embryo rescue, ploidy analysis with flow cytometry and homozygosity testing with microsatellite markers. Ploidy analysis of 3,830 putative parthenogenetic embryos revealed four ploidy levels (n, 2n, 3n, and 4n) with the majority of plants being diploid. Several factors affecting haploid induction were evaluated such as: season, genotype of female plants, genotype of pollen donors and dose of irradiation. It was shown that X-ray pollen irradiation provides an alternative to gamma radiation treatment, yielding a sufficient percentage of haploid plantlets.
COBISS.SI-ID: 7651449