Evidence of late acting self incompatibility in tea

Abstract

To develop sound breeding strategies, it is necessary to understand the reproductive biology and breeding systenls of a species. The consequences of inbreeding are particularly inlportant as they influence the choice of progenitors, breeding population size and seed orchard design. Though the tea species (C. sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze) is thought to have evolved a pre-zygotic ganletophytic self-incoll1patibility systenl to reduce incidences of selfing, upto 20% selfing was determined in some Kenyan tea gerlnplas111. Using the aniline blue fluorescence assay to study incompability, successful "self' pollen penetrations were observed though nlost did not result in successful fruit set. This 111ay indicate that tea has a late acting self-inco111patibility systenl (LSI) or ovarian sterility (OS) type of control of s~lfing. Data on fruit set indicated huge differences anlong the test genllplas111 indicating that self-fertility varies anlong tea genetic resources and that tea ll1ay best be regarded as a facultative out breeder.