Abstract:

In order to understand the correlation between the hypocotyl color and other traits of sugar beet, the series identification experiments were conducted from 1988 to 2003, including the separation and purification of lines with different hypocotyl colors, comparing with original parents, and test of yield from the triploid direct and reciprocal crosses with red and green hypocotyls using tetraploid and diploid multigerm sugar beet lines from four to six generations. The result showed that after selecting the hypocotyl colors to separate sugar beet seedlings, there was no significant difference among diploid lines, but the yield and quality between red and green hypocotyl tetraploid lines varied greatly. The differences of root yield and sugar content between lines with red and green hypocotyl were more than 20% and 1%, respectively, the significant differences between the lines with hypocotyl colors were at 5% prolability level. K, Na contents of the lines with green hypocotyls were lower than those with red ones, but the insalubrious N content of these with red ones significantly lower than those with green ones at 1% or 5% probability level. The plant height, leaf length and width of these with red ones were higher and larger than those of green ones. There was great difference in the yield and the quality of the crosses from tetraploid and diploid lines with red and green hypocotyls. In conclusion the selection method of hypocotyl color of sugar beet seedlinsg will be a new breeding method to develop cultivars and germplasms, and the hypocotyl color can be also used as a mark character.

Key words: Sugar beet, Hypostyle color, Separation and purification, Germplasms creation, Breeding method