Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2022, Vol. 57 ›› Issue (6): 742-755.DOI: 10.11983/CBB22156

Special Issue: 饲草生物学专辑 (2023年58卷2期、2022年57卷6期)

• ·REVIEWS· FORAGE BIOLOGY SPECIAL ISSUE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Self-incompatibility and Inbreeding Depression of Forage Crops

Hong Zhao1,*(), Lizhen Song2, Yu’e Zhang1, Youfa Cheng2, Yongbiao Xue1,*()   

  1. 1Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    2Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
  • Received:2022-07-16 Accepted:2022-08-22 Online:2022-11-01 Published:2022-11-18
  • Contact: Hong Zhao,Yongbiao Xue

Abstract: Self-incompatibility (SI) is an intraspecific reproductive barrier widely occurring in flowering plants to prevent inbreeding depression by promoting outcrossing. However, this trait severely restricts the production of homozygous lines in hybrid breeding, especially for the forage crops mostly belonging to Fabaceae, Asteraceae and Poaceae with unclear molecular mechanisms of SI. Therefore, SI has become one of the major barriers limiting the development of forage industry in China and even in the world. So far, large progresses have been made in the biochemical and evolutionary mechanisms of five different SI types, providing a good foundation for further exploring the SI mechanisms of Fabaceae, Asteraceae and Poaceae forage crops. Here, we briefly review the mechanisms of the five reported SI types and the research progress of SI and inbreeding depression in Fabaceae, Asteraceae and Poaceae.

Key words: self-incompatibility, forage crops, inbreeding depression