Patent ID: 6051752
Filing Date: 2000-04-18
Classification: A01H

Abstract:
A method of producing plants having a defective endosperm phenotype in a cucurbitacene species, the method comprising the steps ofa. providing source plants from a cucurbitacene species;b. removing pollen from said plants;c. irradiating said pollen using gamma rays;d. pollinating said plants with the irradiated pollen to produce seeds containing haploid embryos;e. collecting the seeds resulting from said pollination;f. detecting haploid embryos in said seeds;g. regenerating and doubling the chromosome number of said haploid embryos into double haploid plants;h. self-crossing the doubled haploid plants to produce seeds;i. collecting separately, a seed lot of each doubled haploid plant resulting from said self-crossing;j. screening said seed lots with x-rays to differentiate between seeds having normal embryos with superposed and puffed cotyledons and seeds having embryos with spread and thin cotyledons, a characteristic of a defective endosperm phenotype;k. selecting and recovering seeds of plants having a homozygous defective endosperm phenotype.