Principles of Plant Breeding (2+1)

Self incompatibility

• Self incompatibility refers to the inability of fertile pollen to fertilize its own egg cell resulting in failure of seed set. It differs from male sterility in that self-incompatible pollen is fertile while it is sterile in male sterile pollen.Self incompatibility has been reported in more than 3000 species of plants are covering important species such as Leguminosae, Rosacae, Solanaceae ,Compositae, Cruciferacae, Graminacae. Self incompatibility can occur at any stage between pollination and fertilization.
• Self incompatibility is of two types
1) Homomorphic 2) Heteromorphic