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A TEMPERATURE‐SENSITIVE MALE‐STERILE MUTANT OF THE TOMATO
Author(s) -
Rick Charles M.,
Boynton John E.
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
american journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.218
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1537-2197
pISSN - 0002-9122
DOI - 10.1002/j.1537-2197.1967.tb10683.x
Subject(s) - biology , lycopersicon , sterility , stamen , mutant , pollen , greenhouse , horticulture , chromosome , botany , zoology , gene , genetics
Variable male sterility was encountered in a spontaneous mutant of Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. ‘San Marzano.‘ The trait, conditioned by a single recessive gene vms , was proved by trisomic and linkage tests to lie on chromosome 8, probably in the longer arm between the markers bu and dl. Under field conditions, from June to October in the interior valleys of California, vms develops severely reduced, deformed stamens and defective corolla, being otherwise physiologically and morphologically normal. Despite the production of a limited amount of stainable pollen under these conditions, it is effectively male‐sterile. Earlier in the season in the field and throughout the entire year under normal greenhouse conditions, the flowers are normal except for a slight reduction in the width of corolla segments. Differences in temperature account for the varied response of vms to the environment, minimal temperatures of 30 C in the field and of 32 C in the greenhouse being required to evoke the sterile phenotype. Application of high temperatures to a single branch of vms elicits a response only in the subsequently developed flowers of that branch. The approximate minimal requirements for the greenhouse environment are temperatures of 35 C or higher applied (1) for 4 hr/day for 2 weeks, (2) for 8 hr/day for 1 week, or (3) continuously for 48 hr. The vms response was also elicited by 29.5 C applied continuously for 96 hr and by 40.5 C for 12 hr. Depending upon the rate of growth, the response first appears 3–5 weeks after the start of treatment and continues for approximately the same length of time as that of the treatment. In the light of these findings and of the observed rate of development under the same environment, the sensitive stage is estimated to be flower primordia of 0.075 mm or smaller diam. Buds of this size appear very close to the shoot meristem, are still highly mitotic, and precede meiosis in PMC by at least 10 days—a relationship that is in keeping with the deformity observed in anthers of all dissectable sizes.