Somatic hybrid plants produced by electrofusion between dihaploid potatoes: BF15 (H1), Aminca (H6) and Cardinal (H3).

In order to regenerate somatic hybrids, mesophyll protoplasts from a dihaploid potato, BF15 (H1), were electrofused with those from two other dihaploid clones, Aminca (H6) and Cardinal (H3). Determination of the ploidy level by flow cytometry showed that 10% of plants regenerated from the fusion experiment with “BF15 + Aminca” were diploids, 14% triploids, 63% tetraploids and very few were mixoploids or had a higher ploidy level. Using morphological markers and vigour in plant growth, we were able to recover a total of 24 somatic hybrid plants, respectively 20 and 4 hybrids (accounting for 12% and 13% of regenerants) from the fusions “BF15 + Aminca” and “BF15 + Cardinal”. Most of the somatic hybrids were at the expected tetraploid level (2n=4x=48). The hybrid nature was confirmed by examining isoenzyme patterns for malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICD).