The AFLP technique of DNA analysis was evaluated as a tool for assessing genetic relationships among the cultivated eggplant, S. melongena, and related species [Solanum L. subgenus Leptostemonum (Dunal) Bitter, section Melongena (Mill.) Dunal, series Incaniformia Bitter]. Genetic distances based on the AFLP data were estimated for 49 samples of 36 distinct accessions. Phenetic trees were constructed using Jaccard's coefficient and UPGMA, and other clustering methods: they all had very high co-phenetic correlation values, and were found to be consistent with previous trees based on other data types, in particular ITS-1 sequences, isozymes and morphology, carried out on the same accessions. These results indicated that the AFLP technique is both an efficient and effective tool for determining genetic relationships among species of Solanum. A new classification is proposed for series Incaniformia.

No abstract

No abstract

Quantitative trait loci (QTL) for domestication-related traits were identified in an interspecific F2 population of eggplant (Solanum linnaeanum × S. melongena). Although 62 quantitative trait loci (QTL) were identified in two locations, most of the dramatic phenotypic differences in fruit weight, shape, color, and plant prickliness that distinguish cultivated eggplant from its wild relative could be attributed to six loci with major effects. Comparison of the genomic locations of the eggplant fruit weight, fruit shape, and color QTL with the positions of similar loci in tomato, potato, and pepper revealed that 40% of the different loci have putative orthologous counterparts in at least one of these other crop species. Overall, the results suggest that domestication of the Solanaceae has been driven by mutations in a very limited number of target loci with major phenotypic effects, that selection pressures were exerted on the same loci despite the crops' independent domestications on different continents, and that the morphological diversity of these four crops can be explained by divergent mutations at these loci.

SUMMARY Antigens of algae in the genera Tetracystis and Chlorococcum have been studied extensively by immunodiffusion techniques. Some antigens were species‐, group‐, or genus‐specific; others were common to both genera. The results largely supported other data from morphology, physiology, and ultrastructure but indicated a probable error in the taxonomic placement of one species. The cross reactivity between genera may be of importance in human inhalant allergy to algae.