ABSTRACT
BACKROUND: In recent years, with the increasing demand for seedless grape varieties that have lower production costs, are disease resistant/tolerant and require less chemical pesticides, the embryo recovery technique has begun to be used more in table grape breeding studies. However, the desired high success rate has not yet been achieved in these studies. Although there are different reasons for this, especially the grape varieties selected for cross-breeding and the timing of transferring the embryos to medium are among the most important reasons. In this study, focusing on these two important factors, the embryos obtained from different hybridization combinations were transferred to agar medium at different weeks for 4 years and the most successful combination and time were determined. In addition, seedless and large berry grape varieties and some seeded varieties that are resistant/tolerant to fungal diseases were selected as parents because they can provide resistance to disease infections in vitro and thus increase the success rate. RESULTS: The results obtained from the study showed that the selected variety and combination significantly affected the success rate in embryo rescue. Especially in combinations with the 'Yalova Seedless' variety as the female parent, more successful results were obtained compared to combinations of other varieties. When 'Yalova Seedless' variety was pollinated with pollen of 'Red Globe', 'Muscat Bailey A' and 'Exalta' varieties, more seedlings were obtained with the help of embryo rescue. The results obtained over four years showed that the best sampling time after pollination was the eighth week and then the seventh week. CONCLUSIONS: According to the results obtained, it has been shown that the selected varieties and the sampling time significantly affect the success rate in embryo rescue studies. Therefore, higher success rates can be achieved in comprehensive breeding studies in which they will be included as pollinators, especially in different seeded varieties that are resistant to diseases and have larger berry size.