[Prospects of using self-fertility in breeding rye populations varieties]

The advances in rye hybrid breeding are due to the use of self-fertile forms. Rye self-fertility is determined by mutations in one of the three gametophytic loci (S, Z, and T), which control the reaction of incompatibility. Attempts to construct synthetic populations by combining self-fertile forms selected by general combining ability failed because of high-rate selfing. A breeding scheme was proposed to include crosses of a line carrying a self-fertility mutation in the S locus with the population subject to improvement, selfing of the resulting hybrids, selection and intermating of the best inbred progenies, and subsequent elimination of the self-fertility mutation from the breeding material with the use of the Prx7 allozyme marker. The scheme can be employed in improvement of the existing rye varieties, their differentiation into populations differing in end use, and construction and improvement of complementary gene pools in hybrid breeding. To facilitate the implementation of the scheme, an original instrument was designed for high-throughput isozyme analysis.