Research Progress on Genetic Breeding of Spinach（Spinacia oleracea L.）
QIAN Wei，ZHANG He-long，LIU Wei，XU Zhao-sheng*
（Beijing Zhongshu Horticultural Crop Seed Research and Development Center，Institute of Vegetables and Flowers，
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences，Beijing 100081，China）
Abstract：Spinach（Spinacia oleracea L.）with rich nutrition，strong cold resistance，short production
cycle and high multiple crop index is widely cultivated throughout northern and southern China．It is one of the
major green leafy vegetables in spring，autumn and winter，and also one of the major export vegetable species
in China．Along with the improvement of people’s living standard，higher requirement for strain characters of
spinach is raised，and selection for superior spinach varieties has won the great attention of breeders．This paper
reviews the research progress made in genetic breeding of spinach，including spinach germplasm collection and
identification，inheritance regularity of characters，breeding technology and new varieties selective breeding．It also
points out the existing problems facing spinach breeding in China，and prospects the future developing trends．
