Fertility Restoration in Garlic EU project “Garlic and Health” - Work Package 2 Rina Kamenetsky and Haim D. Rabinowitch Idit London, Marina Baizerman, Ada Harazy and Amit Shiftan

Garlic (Allium sativum) is a completely sterile plant, propagated only vegetatively Increase of genetic variation occurs only via random or induced mutations, new cultivars are bred by clonal selection Allium longicuspis from Central Asia, a member of the garlic taxon, is probably the most primitive one. Background information

Sterility was assumed to result from (Etoh & Simon, 2002) Nutritional competition between floral and vegetative buds in the developing inflorescence (Koul and Gohil, 1970) Degeneration of the tapetum (Novak, 1972) Degenerative-like disease (Konvicka, 1973) Chromosomal deletions (Etoh, 1985) Hormonal imbalance and competition for resources between the simultaneously forming bulb, growing cloves and developing inflorescence (Pooler & Simon, 1994)

Garlic clones are classified according to their ability to bolt: 1. Complete bolting: long stalk with many flowers and topsets 2. Incomplete bolting: thin short stalk with a few large topsets 3. Nonbolting: producing only cloves inside incomplete scape (Takagi, 1990)

Missions to Central Asia in 2000 and 2001, resulted in a collection of 241 accessions, including wild populations and land-races.

Incomplete-bolting accession Bolting accession

Bolting garlic

J. Am. Soc. Hortic. Sci. (2004)Developmental Physiology Environmental Control of Garlic Growth and Florogenesis Rina Kamenetsky, Idit London Shafir, Hanita Zemah, Amalia Barzilay and H. D. Rabinowitch

Weeks of experiment 20/12 0 C 23/15 0 C 20/12C SD LD SD 23/15C 20/12 0 C 23/15C LD SD 20/12C SD 23/15C SD 20/12 0 C Fig. 1. Phytotron thermo- and photo-period treatments in experiments. Propagation bulbs were subjected to 60 days of constant storage temperature at 4 0 C prior to planting. Short days (SD) = 10 hrs insolation; Long days (LD) = 10 hrs sunlight followed by 10 hrs of incandescent light Treatment number

Plants under continuous SP did not bolt and produced numerous axillary leaves

Following stratification, seeds were sown in November

Garlic nursery: A general viewIndividual garlic seedling, accession No. 500 March, 2002

TreatmentLeaf number prior to floral initiation Maximum scape length Sprouting cloves Dormant cloves SD - LD SD LD SD - 1 w LD - SD SD - 2 w LD - SD SD - 3 w LD - SD SD - 4 w LD - SD Growth temperatures 20/12 – 23/15 0 C

incomplete-bolters mean leaf no. No. of accessions Mean leaf number bolters mean leaf no. TF

Frequency distribution of scape length (42 accessions) T F

Date of spathe breaking Physiological parameters of bolting garlic (42 accessions)

Newly-formed bulbs from seeds varied by… 1 cm skin colour 1 cm bulbing ability 1 cm bulb size and clove formation

Publications: Kamenetsky, Rina and H. D. Rabinowitch (2001). Floral development in bolting garlic. Sexual Plant Reproduction 4, Kamenetsky, Rina, Idit London Shafir, Hanita Zemah, Amalia Barzilay and H. D. Rabinowitch (2004). Environmental control of garlic growth and florogenesis. J. Am. Soc. Hort. Sci. (in press)

Ada HarazyAmit ShiftanAmalia BarzilayMarina Baizerman Yizhak Forer Hanita Zemah Idit London Shafir SPECIAL THANKS