Field generation of triparental sugar beet plants through polyspermy-induced three-parent breeding.

Polyspermy, the fertilization of an egg by two sperm cells, can generate viable triparental offspring in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. To explore the potential for three-parent breeding in a crop species, male-sterile sugar beet plants were grown alongside genetically distinct pollen donors carrying dominant, traceable selection markers. Progeny carrying genetic signatures from two fathers were identified and subjected to further genetic analysis. The combined detection of paternal markers from two pollen donors and an additional chromosome set confirms the triparental origin of these plants, demonstrating the potential for three-parent breeding in sugar beet under field conditions.