Improvement of population breeding of open-pollinated broccoli as a replacement for cell-fusion based CMS hybrids

Nowadays, the organic cultivation of cabbage vegetables is dominated by hybrids. To develop these hybrids, the mechanism of cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) is often used. CMS does not occur naturally in Brassica oleracea. Therefore CMS was introduced from radish (Raphanus sativus) through cell fusion. The organic movement rejects cell fusion because it enables the transfer of traits from one species to another and artificially isolated cells are technically manipulated. For this reason, many organic associations have decided to ban the cultivation of varieties that are derived from cell fusion.

The project aims to:

• 1) optimise the selection methods for the cell fusion-free (CFF) broccoli varieties for organic farming, which perform well agronomically, of high quality taste and accepted by the market.
• 2) test population varieties in comparison with cell fusion-based F1 hybrids under on-farm practice conditions.
• 3) promote the commercial introduction of ZFF population varieties as a replacement for the cell fusion-based CMS hybrids. This will be carried out in cooperation with actors along the entire value chain.

• Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) – Promotion of Organic Research
• EU Projekt: Diversifood
• Bio Suisse
• Sativa Rheinau AG

• Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) – Promotion of Organic Research
• European Commission, Horizon 2020

• Sativa Rheinau AG

• Messmer Monika (Department of Crop Sciences)

• Hauenstein Samuel (Department of Crop Sciences)
• Schwitter Patricia (Department Suisse Romande)
• Sommer Léa (Department of Crop Sciences)
• Vonzun Seraina (Department of Crop Sciences)

Project coordination, Work package manager

• Plant Breeding (Department of Crop Sciences, FiBL Switzerland)
• Vegetables & Herbs (Department of Crop Sciences, FiBL Switzerland)