The present invention provides a stevia plant having a low ability to form flower buds as compared with the wild type stevia species. The present invention also provides a method of producing such a stevia plant having a low ability to form flower buds, and an extract or a steviol glycoside purified product obtainable from such a plant.

The present invention provides a stevia plant having a low ability to form pollens as compared with the wild type stevia species. The present invention also provides a method of producing such a stevia plant having a low ability to form pollens, and an extract or a steviol glycoside purified product obtainable from such a plant.

A method of screening for a stevia plant with high steviol glycoside content, that includes detecting from the genome of a test stevia plant the presence and/or the absence of the following genetic feature: (1) homozygous for the allele wherein the base at the position corresponding to position 290 of SEQ ID NO: 1 is T, and the presence and/or the absence of the following genetic feature: (2) homozygous or heterozygous for the allele wherein the base at the position corresponding to position 40 of SEQ ID NO: 2 is A.

The present invention provides a high sweet content stevia plant having a variation at a portion corresponding to SEQ ID NO: 1, a method of producing or screening for the same, etc.

Novel cultivars of Stevia rebaudiana plant, with a novel genetic trait of self-compatibility, and the advantageous use of this genetic trait in Stevia rebaudiana crossing breeding for increasing steviol glycosides production, including food and beverage products and other consumables, are disclosed.

A Stevia extract made from leaves of the Stevia rebaudiana plant is described. The extract has desired levels of steviol glycosides and is useful in food, beverage, and other consumable products.

The present invention provides a plant body containing a compound represented by Formula (1), or a salt or a hydrate thereof:

##STR00001##

[in the formula: (i) R.sub.1 represents Xyl(1-2)Glc1- and R.sub.2 represents Glc(1-2)[Glc(1-3)]Glc1- or (ii) R.sub.1 represents Glc(1-2)[Glc(1-3)]Glc1- and R.sub.2 represents Xyl(1-2)[Glc(1-3)]Glc1- (where Glc stands for glucose and Xyl stands for xylose)].

A high rebaudioside C-content type, non-genetically modified Stevia plant that has a higher content of rebaudioside C than wild-type Stevia varieties, more specifically at least 20% higher content. A method for producing such a high rebaudioside C-content type, non-genetically modified Stevia plant; and dried leaves obtained from such a plant.

Stevia varieties with a high content of RebM, are disclosed Further provided are methods for producing Stevia plants having a high RebM content by negatively regulating certain genes selecting the resulting plants, and breeding with such plants to confer such desirable Reb M phenotypes to plant progeny.

A stevia cultivar, designated ‘16228013’, is disclosed. Further embodiments relate to the plant parts of stevia cultivar ‘16228013’, to the plants of stevia ‘16228013’ and to methods for producing a stevia plant produced by crossing the cultivar ‘16228013’ with itself or another stevia variety, including methods using marker assisted breeding. Further embodiments relate to hybrid stevia seeds and plants produced by crossing the cultivar ‘16228013’ with another stevia cultivar. Six highly polymorphic SNPs loci and the corresponding genomic sequences used to identify plant variety ‘16228013’ derived plant materials are also disclosed.