Evaluation of phenotypic uniformity of androgenic R1 population of carrot derived by anther culture technique

Phenotypic uniformity of carrot androgenic lines of R1 generations was assessed in respect to several morphological traits in vegetative and generative stages. Seeds of R1 populations were obtained by self pollination of R0 androgenic plants derived by the use of anther culture technique from three donor cultivars: ‘HCM’, ‘CxC9900 F1’ and ‘Narbonne F1’. R1 plants of donor cultivar ‘HCM’ were obtained from different embryo-like structures (excluding two lines) and plants of cultivars ‘CxC9900 F1’ and ‘Narbonne F1’ were developed within the same embryo-like structure. The level of interline uniformity of individual R1 genotypes was very diversified depending on donor cultivar and some morphological features of leaf and root of carrot plants. The highest intraline variation, according to the most of the investigated traits, was recorded for the clones derived from donor cultivars ‘CxC9900 F1’ and ‘Narbonne F1’ but the lowest was observed for lines obtained from donor cultivar ‘HCM’. Generally, there was a higher intraline Marzena Nowakowska, Elżbieta U. Kozik, Renata Nowak 78 diversity of R1 lines in marketable traits than in measured traits. Androgenic R1 populations varied also in the level of fertility. All lines derived from donor open pollinated cultivar ‘HCM’ were fertile, in contrast to the clones originated from donor F1 hybrids ‘CxC9900 F1’ and ‘Narbonne F1’ that segregated on fertile and sterile plants. Phenotypic characteristics and segregation in fertility particularly, may show genetic diversity, but they could also be influenced by some environmental factors.