Seed Germination and Growth Improvement for Early Maturing Pear Breeding
Jialiang Kan,
Na Yuan,
Jing Lin,
Hui Li,
Qingsong Yang,
Zhonghua Wang,
Zhijun Shen,
Yeqing Ying,
Xiaogang Li,
Fuliang Cao
Affiliations
Jialiang Kan
Institute of Pomology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Horticultural Crop Genetic Improvement, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China
Na Yuan
Institute of Pomology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Horticultural Crop Genetic Improvement, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China
Jing Lin
Institute of Pomology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Horticultural Crop Genetic Improvement, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China
Hui Li
Institute of Pomology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Horticultural Crop Genetic Improvement, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China
Qingsong Yang
Institute of Pomology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Horticultural Crop Genetic Improvement, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China
Zhonghua Wang
Institute of Pomology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Horticultural Crop Genetic Improvement, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China
Zhijun Shen
Institute of Pomology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Horticultural Crop Genetic Improvement, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China
Yeqing Ying
State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou 311300, China
Xiaogang Li
Institute of Pomology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Horticultural Crop Genetic Improvement, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China
Fuliang Cao
State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou 311300, China
Breeding early maturing cultivars is one of the most important objectives in pear breeding. Very early maturing pears provide an excellent parental material for crossing, but the immature embryo and low seed germination of their hybrid progenies often limit the selection and breeding of new early maturing pear cultivars. In this study, we choose a very early maturing pear cultivar ‘Pearl Pear’ as the study object and investigate the effects of cold stratification, the culture medium, and the seed coat on the germination and growth of early maturing pear seeds. Our results show that cold stratification (4 °C) treatment could significantly improve the germination rates of early maturing pear seeds. A total of 100 days of cold-temperature treatment in 4 °C and in vitro germination on White medium increased the germination rate to 84.54%. We also observed that seed coat removal improved the germination of early maturing pear seeds, with middle seed coat removal representing the optimal method, with a high germination rate and low contamination. The results of our study led to the establishment of an improved protocol for the germination of early maturing pear, which will greatly facilitate the breeding of new very early maturing pear cultivars.
