Botanical Seed of Garlic, Allium Sativum

Abstract

Provided herein are garlic plants capable of producing substantial amounts of botanical seed, i.e. at least 500 viable seeds per garlic plant. Also provided herein is a use of the present garlic plant for the production of botanical seeds, i.e. at least 500 viable seeds per garlic plant and to seeds and plant parts obtainable from the present garlic plants. Specifically, provided herein are garlic plants capable of producing at least 500 viable seeds per garlic plant, representative seed of said garlic plant deposited under NCIMB 42869.

Claims

1. A garlic plant capable of producing at least 500 viable seeds per garlic plant, representative seed of said garlic plant deposited under NCIMB 42869.

2. The garlic plant according to claim 1, wherein said garlic plant is a hybrid plant.

3. The garlic plant according to claim 1, wherein said garlic plant is capable of producing at least 1000 viable seeds per garlic plant.

4. The garlic plant according to claim 1, wherein said garlic plant has a flowering phenotype of at least 5 flowers per plant and a substantial absence of bulbils.

5. (canceled)

6. The garlic plant according to claim 1, wherein said garlic plant has a flowering phenotype type of 6 to 8 flowers per plant and a substantial absence of bulbils.

7. (canceled)

8. A method for producing garlic hybrid seeds comprising vegetatively propagating the garlic plant according to claim 1.

9. A seed of the garlic plant according to claim 1.

10. A plant part of the garlic plant according to claim 1.

11. The plant part according to claim 10, wherein said plant part is a clove.

12. A method for the production of a botanical garlic seed, the method comprises the steps of: a) providing a garlic plant according claim 1; b) allowing said garlic plant to produce a seed; and c) harvesting said produced seed.

13. The garlic plant according to claim 1, wherein said viable seeds are obtainable by crossing a male sterile garlic parent plant with a male fertile garlic parent plant and wherein said garlic male sterile plant has a flowering phenotype type of at least 5 flowers per plant and a substantial absence of bulbils and/or said garlic male fertile plant has a flowering phenotype type of at least 5 flowers per plant and a substantial absence of bulbils.

Description

[0055] In the example below, reference is made to figures wherein:

[0056] FIG. 1: shows a plant of the present invention showing improved flowering, with essentially no bulbils and an abundance of well-developed flowers

[0057] FIG. 2: shows a flower as described in WO98/47371 with a lot of bulbils and poor flower development

EXAMPLE

[0058] Since garlic has a very poor flowering, resulting in no or a very low seed production, the crop is mainly vegetatively propagated. Due to the lack of crossings, there is little genetic variation available and due to the long period of vegetative propagation, garlic has many problems with infection of viruses and pathogens. Considering the above, it is desirable to develop a method to efficiently supply basic garlic material which is free of accumulated pathogens as viroids, viruses, bacteria, nematodes and fungi. Inventors addressed this problem by developing garlic plants which are essentially free of bulbils in the floral structure (FIG. 1). These novel plants are able to bear large quantities of true garlic seeds (TGS).

[0059] As an multiannual average, a planted garlic bulb results in 6 to 8 flowers which in total yield 2.33 grams of seeds, corresponding to 1,280 seeds per plant (with an average seed count of 550 seeds per gram). These seeds are normal in the sense that they are not shrivelled or otherwise misshapen, germination is, after a dormancy breaking treatment, at least 60% and can be as high as 90%. In one case even 9 grams of seed (4,400 seeds) were harvested from one plant.

TABLE-US-00003 TABLE III Comparison of seed yield between ref. 7, 8, 9 and material described in this application Seed yield/plant Source (assumption: 8 flowers per plant) Etoh et al. 16 Pooler et al. <1 U.S. Pat No. 5,746,024 (FIG. 2) 26 This application 1280

[0060] Since the availability of seed bearing plants, it was also possible to identify male sterile garlic plants. This in turn opened the possibility to develop garlic hybrids by having male and female garlic lines as parental material.

[0061] This material is essentially virus free since propagating several generations of vegetative material is avoided. Application of plants grown from essentially disease free TGS also has the advantage that less chemicals have to be applied to the growing crop.

Specific Embodiments of the Invention

[0062] In a first embodiment of the invention seeds are germinated on filter paper in continuous light with a temperature of 20 C. Germination is determined after 20-28 days.

[0063] In a second embodiment of the invention, seeds are primed and then sown in July (North Europe); seedlings are transferred to soil in October and plants develop mature bulbs in June/July of the following year. These bulbs are transferred to a suitable seed production site, where plants will flower after the winter period and seeds are harvested after flowering and seed set.

[0064] In another embodiment, the seedling gives rise to bulbs after growing to maturity and these bulbs break up in a multitude of cloves. These cloves can be used to have a further multiplication of the vegetative material and are sold as healthy starting material for production of garlic for the market.

[0065] In another embodiment of the invention, use of seeds instead of cloves results in a strong reduction of transport, storage of garlic bulbs and/or cloves.

[0066] In a further embodiment of the invention, application of seeds from essentially disease free plants avoids the use of protective chemicals to combat a range of diseases.

[0067] In yet another embodiment of the invention, less handling of material is possible, since use of seeds is far less labour intensive then the use of bulbs and/or cloves; which have to be cleaned after harvest and carefully stored.

[0068] In a further embodiment of the invention, application of doubled haploid inducing techniques, e.g. anther culture, microspore culture (from a male fertile line) or egg cell culture is used to develop parental lines; thus drastically reducing the time needed to develop such material.

[0069] In another embodiment of the invention, the possibility of genetic crosses between garlic varieties widens the genetic basis of novel varieties, resulting in e.g. improved disease resistance, yield and/or quality.

[0070] In a further embodiment, performing crosses between seed bearing garlic varieties opens the possibility to develop cultivars suitable for a specific geographic area or climatic conditions.

[0071] In yet another embodiment of the invention, availability of seed opens up the possibility of seed treatments, priming, pelleting and the like which all promote a healthy crop. The application of these seed-technological treatments adds further unique characters to the crop garlic from seed.

[0072] Seeds, in general, can be germinating late due to a mechanism called dormancy. This biological mechanism in nature prevents seeds of germination too early in a season; after a prolonged period of cold seeds are ready to germinate. In this way the emerged plantlets have no or a reduced risk of freezing. For plant growers however, dormancy is a process which also prevents timely germination when sowing seeds short after harvesting. Several treatments were developed in the past to break dormancy, among these are: [0073] Scarification, the deliberate damaging of the seed hull so it permits transfer water and air to the embryo [0074] Stratification, keeping the seeds (eventually in soil) at low temperatures, thereby in fact mimicking winter. [0075] Priming, the pre-germination of seeds until the point they are about to germinate. This results in an early and very uniform germination of the primed seeds; also a dormancy breaking effect is provided by this treatment.

[0076] Also, because of the rapid emergence of the crop, the need for combatting weeds is lower since the crop grown very early covers the soil sufficiently to prevent weeds from competing with the desired crop. Further, priming enables cultivation of a crop in areas with a short growing season.

[0077] Modern sowing equipment requires a round and smooth shape of seeds to ensure good sowing results. Since many seeds do not meet this requirement, techniques are developed to provide seeds with a layer of material (e.g. clay) which provide the desired shape and smoothness of the seed and also contribute to the weight of it. Seed treatments as encrusting (adding just enough material to cover irregularities in the seed skin) and pelleting (in addition, giving the seed an uniform round shape and a desired size) are enabled.

[0078] Within the context of the present invention, coating can be defined as a relatively thin layer of polymer supplied to the seed; to this polymer fungicides or insecticides can be added to protect the seed against soil borne pathogens and insect damage. Additionally, a dye can be added, giving the opportunity to check for correct drilling of the seeds. Alternatively, also other beneficial compounds can be added as micronutrients or beneficial micro-organisms promoting the growth of the young seedlings. Moreover, addition of germination promoting compounds as plant hormones is possible.

[0079] Encrusted seeds are not only covered with a polymer with or without extra substances as described above but also the seeds are provided with a smooth surface. This makes drilling easier and the added weight enables a more precise direct drilling of seeds treated this way. With pelleting the seeds are covered with more material, e.g. polymer bound clay, to produce a regularly shaped, round pellet. This pellet, besides eventually having the protecting substances described above, can be constructed in such a way that it will melt or split after water uptake. Priming: priming or pre-germination is a treatment where seeds are given enough moisture to have a onset of germination of the embryo inside the seed. This results in a faster emergence of the seedling, a higher emergence rate and better growth. It is believed that this head-start results in a good root system going down the soil early and growing faster.

[0080] All these techniques together with the unique characteristics of true garlic seeds enable a complete new and competitive way of growing healthy and more diverse garlic crops.

[0081] With availability of TGS several practical avenues to grow healthy garlic cloves are possible: [0082] direct drilling of seeds to directly grow garlic bulbs and cloves in the field [0083] growing young plants in a greenhouse or the like in small pots and transplanting these to the field [0084] grow small cloves or bulbs from first generation plants grown from seed and use these for further cultivation. This material can be considered to be equivalent to AA class material from vegetative propagated material

TABLE-US-00004 Abbreviations and terms A line male sterile (or female) parent line of a F1 hybrid Bulbil a tiny secondary bulb which forms in place of flowers on plants as onion, garlic and lily C line male fertile parent line of a F1 hybrid, pollinator clove a fleshy section of the garlic bulb; bulbs can be divided e.g. 4 or 6 to numerous cloves CMS cytoplasmic male sterility F1 hybrid the first filial generation of offspring of distinctly different parental types GCLV garlic common latent virus LYSV leek yellow stripe virus OYDV onion yellow dwarf virus PCR polymerase chain reaction qPCR quantitative PCR RAPD random amplification of polymorphic DNA RFLP restriction fragment length polymorphism RT-PCR real-time PCR SLV shallot latent virus SNP single nucleotide polymorphism TGS true garlic seed