The colchicine story.

摘要

The impact of colchicine on the breeding of horticultural crops is examined. Artificial polyploidy induced by colchicine has been used less in horticultural than agronomic species, mainly because of the long period to flowering in most woody perennials. Many diploid progenitors of horticultural crops also produce significant numbers of 2n gametes, making direct crosses possible without the need for colchicine-induced chromosome doubling. It is concluded that its direct horticultural importance hasbeen limited outside the floricultural industry where it has been successfully employed to increase flower size.