Current status in production and utilization of dihaploids from somatic hybrids between eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) and its wild relatives

hy brids be tween egg plant and its wild rel a tives have been their ste ril ity and tetraploidy which pre vented their in cor po ra tion into breed ing pro grams. Here we dem on strate that an ther cul - ture was suc cess fully uti lized to bring back the ploidy level to the dip loid sta tus in tetraploid interspecific hy brids be tween egg plant and the al lied spe cies S. integrifolium and S. aethio - picum gr. gilo. Both the rel a tive spe cies are re sis tant to Fusar - ium oxysporum f. sp. melongenae and to some strains of bac te - rial wilt (Ralstonia solanacearum) which are very de struc tive dis eases of egg plant. Dihaploid androgenetic plants were ob - tained from the so matic hy brids, from the “dou ble so matic hy - brid” ob tained by sex ual cross of the two so matic hy brids [(egg plant + S. aethiopicum) x (egg plant + S. integrifolium)], and from tetraploid back crossed plants be tween the so matic hy brid with S. aethiopicum and egg plant. Phenotypical, mo - lec u lar, bi o log i cal and bio chem i cal char ac ter iza tion, and also ar ti fi cial in oc u la tion with Fusarium oxysporum are con sis tent with a re com bi na tion be tween the genomes of the spe cies in - volved in the hy brid iza tions. Dihaploids re sis tant to Fusarium were suc cess fully back crossed with egg plant. Be sides their util ity as po ten tial valu able breed ing ma te ri als, the intro - gressed lines ob tained may be uti lized in ge netic and mo lec u lar stud ies about the re sis tance to Fusarium from S. integrifolium and S. aethiopicum gr. gilo.