Mechanism of fruit-set failure and seedless fruit formation at low temperatures in tropical fruit trees

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24658028
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Horticulture/Landscape architecture
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: HIGUCHI Hirokazu 京都大学, (連合)農学研究科(研究院), 准教授 (50303871)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 熱帯果樹 / 受粉 / 温度 / 受精 / 結実

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Night temperature of cherimoya flower was regulated sectionally to decide that lower temperature less than 8 ºC reduced seed number and symmetricity, and that minimum temperature for several days before pollination detrimentally affected seed number. Lychee flower was subjected to low temperature and resulted in seedless fruit in some cultivars at a certain temperature regimes. Shrinked embryo or absence of egg sell could be an incidence of seedless fruit.
Temperature regulation of durian flower revealed that Monthong cultivar formed irregular ovule in shape frequently than other cultivars, and this might be a factor to increase fruit drop during young stage after suffering lower night temperature. Failure in fruit-set was caused by developmental failure of ovule after pollination.

Free Research Field

熱帯果樹園芸