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( Harborne, 1976 ). Flowers can accumulate mixtures of anthocyanin types, providing further variation in color. Other factors such as vacuolar pH and petal cell shape can also affect the flower color ( Mol et al., 1998 ). The genetics of flower color are best
Roots are critical for plants to withstand environmental abiotic and biotic stresses. Wild taxa are often used as source of variation for improving root systems, as they are adapted to more stressful soil environments than their cultivated relatives. We studied the genetics of traits related to root biomass, root length, and root architecture (considering the primary/secondary and the tertiary root levels) in melon (Cucumis melo L.) in a 2-year assay by examining the root systems of mature plants in 91 F3 families derived from the cross between a wild accession, Pat 81 [C. melo ssp. agrestis (Naud) Pangalo], and a cultivated accession, `Piel de sapo' (C. melo ssp. melo L.). Despite the difficulties of working with adult plants, we found that Pat 81 and `Piel de sapo' differ greatly in their mature root systems, which is in concordance with the results previously obtained with young roots. Pat 81 developed roots with less biomass than `Piel de sapo', but this wild accession had more favorable root length and architectural traits: a higher density of framework roots, more uniformly distributed along the soil profile, longer laterals with a higher density of branches, and a higher number of root orders. This root structure is linked to a deeper rooting ability and to the capacity of exploiting a larger soil volume. The genetic analysis indicated that length and architectural traits are more stable than biomass traits, both between years and between developmental stages. Moderate to low broad- and narrow-sense heritabilites were found for root length and architectural traits, with most of the observed variation due to additive effects. Our results suggest that Pat 81 could be used as donor of valuable genes for increasing root length and improving the root architecture of cultivated melons, producing melons potentially more tolerant to soil stresses. The lack of phenotypic and genetic correlations between length and architectural parameters and root biomass suggest that root structure can be successfully improved without increasing carbon expenditures.
Abstract
The genetics of high-temperature fruit set was studied with a complete diallel cross using 5 cultivars with excellent high temperature tolerance and a California cultivar lacking stigma exsertion. The cultivars differed genetically for number of flowers per cluster, percent fruit set, number of seeds per fruit and stigma exsertion. At normal and high temperatures recessive genes are associated with greater flower number and heritability for this character was high. Percent fruit set is under the control of a largely additive system with a moderate heritability at high temperature. Nonallelic gene interaction was involved in seed set and dominance components exceeded additive at both temperatures. Heritability for seed set was low at high temperature. Stigma exsertion at high temperature is controlled by partially dominant genes with a high diallel additive component and heritability. The results suggest that a scheme of selection for specific combining ability would be useful to combine the strengths of the high temperature tolerant lines with needed characters from a successful cultivar.
Preliminary data on the genetics of glandular trichomes and the feasibility of incorporating A and B glandular trichomes and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity from Solanum berthaultii Hawkes (Ber) into an advanced S. phureja Juz. et Buk.-S. stenotomum Juz. (Phu-Stn) diploid potato population are presented. A random sample of four Phu-Stn clones was intercrossed with a sample of three Ber progenies (pollen bulk per progeny) segregating for high density of A and B glandular trichomes. Nine F1 families [(Phu-Stn) × Ber] were evaluated over two experiments in the greenhouse for A and B trichome density (5 mm2 of abaxial surface) and PPO activity 45 days after planting. A completely randomized design in an experimental hierarchical classification arrangement was used to quantify the genetic variability and to estimate broad-sense heritabilities (defined on an individual basis) for the attributes under study. To characterize the inheritance of these attributes further and to estimate narrow-sense heritabilities, fifteen backcross (BC) families were evaluated in a randomized complete-block design with three replications and analyzed by half-sib family analysis. Phenotypic and genotypic correlations between these attributes were also estimated. In the F1 families, broad-sense heritabilities were 0.59 and 0.41 for density of A and B trichomes, respectively. In the BC population, narrow-sense heritabilities were 0.15 and 0.08 for A trichome density and PPO activity, respectively; expression of B trichomes was almost absent in this generation. Genotype × environment interaction was significant for density of A trichomes and highly significant for density of B trichomes in F1 families. There was some level of positive association between density of A and B trichomes and PPO activity. Additive genetic variance of these attributes was very low in this study; therefore, selection schemes based on family selection and progeny testing would be an appropriate breeding strategy for improving these traits.
. Genomes 6 477 487 10.1007/s11295-009-0265-2 Bus, V.G. Alspach, P.A. Hofstee, M.E. Brewer, L.R. 2002 Genetic variability and preliminary heritability estimates of resistance to scab ( Venturia inaequalis ) in an apple genetics population N. Z. J. Crop Hort
1 Dept. of Fruit Trees, Genetics and Breeding, ARO, P.O. Box 6, Bet-Dagan 50250, Israel. 2 Dept. of Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, The Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem, Rehovot 76100, Israel. 3 Dept. of Horticulture and the Otto Warburg Center for
Trends Genet. 23 81 90 Elston, R.C. 1984 The genetic analysis of quantitative trait differences between two homozygous lines Genetics 108 733 744 Gai, J. Wang, J. 1998 Identification and estimation of a QTL model and its effects Theor. Appl. Genet. 97
the advent of the common bean genome sequence, SNP markers, and tools such as mutagenesis populations and TILLING ( Porch et al., 2009 ), novel methods are available for identifying genes of interest. Although the genetics of Cl have been studied
Two new lettuce (Luctuca sativa L.) genes are described and named truncated leaf (tn), and sickly (si). A gene for reflexed involucre is identical to that previously described in wild lettuce (L. serriola L.). Mosaic reaction (me) and light green (lg) are linked, with P = 0.448. Six gene pairs tested for linkage are independently inherited. Sickly is epistatic to light green.
. Bonin for similar services at Woflskill Experimental Orchard. This research used materials generated as part of a pistachio genetics and improvement program with cooperators D.E. Parfitt, C.T. Chao, L. Ferguson, C. Kallsen, and J. Maranto. The cost of