Breeding triploid plants: a review

Triploid plants have larger organs, greater biomass, and strong stress resistance by preserving relatively larger amounts of photosynthetic energy. The undesirable spread of non-native invasive crop and horticultural plants into natural areas can also be reduced or eliminated by the use of triploids, because they tend to be sterile and seedless. Triploid plants have great economic value and have been useful for developing new agronomic, horticultural, and forestry plant varieties. Because of rapid advances in DNA sequencing technology, triploids may become a focus of genomic research in the future, and will create unprecedented opportunities for discovering and monitoring genomic and transcriptomic changes in unbalanced genomes. One of the new trends in genomics research is to create synthetic triploid plants as materials for the study of first genomic responses that occur immediately after triploid formation. Here, we summarize recent progress in the use of triploid plants, approaches for obtaining triploid plants, including natural selection, artificial hybridization, and endosperm regeneration, the obstacles to obtain triploids, and possible ways to overcome these difficulties. This summary of the scientific progress on triploid plants will promote understanding of how they can be generated and assist plant breeders to design new strategies for triploid breeding.