Source of Useful Traits

In the late 1800s, there already was speculation that Beta maritima might provide a reservoir of resistance genes that could be utilized in sugar beet breeding. European researchers crossed B. maritima and sugar beet and observed many traits in the hybrid progeny. It is impossible to estimate how widely B. maritima was used in the production of commercial varieties, because most of the germplasm exchanges were informal and are difficult to document. Often these crosses of sugar beet with sea beet germplasm contained undesirable traits, e.g., annualism, elongated crowns, fangy roots, high fiber, red pigment (in root, leaf, or petiole) and much lower sucrose production. It is believed that lack of acceptance of B. maritima as a reservoir of genes was because most of the evaluations of the progeny were done in early generations: The reactions of the hybrids vulgaris × maritima were not impressive, and it is clear now that they were not adequately studied in the later generations.