Mulberry Genetic Resources and Breeding

• Main Authors: Hiroaki Machii, Akio Koyama, Hiroaki Yamanouchi
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.565.7359; http://www.fao.org/ag/AGA/AGAP/FRG/Mulberry/Papers/PDF/Machii2.pdf

Mulberry species and its distribution in Japan Mulberry belongs to the genus Morus of the family Moraceae. Koidzumi (1917) classified the genus Morus into 24 species and one subspecies. Mulberry is distributed in a wide area of tropical, subtropical, temperate and sub-arctic zones. Most of mulberry varieties cultivated in Japan belong to Morus bombysis Koidz, M. alba and M. latifolia Poiret. Varieties belonging to M. bombysis are primarily cultivated in cold regions, such as Tohoku district. M. latifolia varieties are mainly cultivated in warm places, such as Kyushu district. However, varieties of M. alba are cultivated in a wide area, from Kyushu district to Tohoku district, since it has middle traits of these two species. Besides, M. acidosa Griff. grows naturally and is cultivated in south-west islands including Okinawa islands. M. kagayamae Koidz. and M. boninensis Koidz. are indigenous to the remote islands of Hachijoujima and Ogasawara, respectively. Ploidy of mulberry Generally, mulberry is a diploid plant with 28 chromosomes (2n=28). However, it is rich in ploidy and a lot of triploid varieties have been found especially among Morus bombysis Koidz. It is