Inheritance of flower pigments in tulip (Tulipa L.)

Abstract

In order to investigate the inheritance of flower colour in tulips, seven cultivars were crossed and selfed in a diallel . Of these parents and their F,'s the relative amounts of carotenoids, delphinidin, cyanidin, pelargonidin, quercetin and kaempferol were determined .For delphinidin, quercetin and kaempferol only additive gene action was determined, and for carotenoids, cyanidin and pelargonidin also non-additive gene action and plasmic differences .Biosynthesis of delphinidin and pelargonidin was only found when cyanidin was present, while synthesis of delphinidin and pelargonidin was antagonistic .

Exploitation of heterosis for carotenoid content in African marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) and its correlation with esterase polymorphism

“…In contrast, breeding for carotenoid content has been studied in great detail in other crops such as tomato (Rao and Choudhary 1974;Bhutani and Kalloo 1983;Amaral et al 1997), tulips (Nieuwhof et al 1988) and camellia (Hwang et al 1992). On the basis of a study using a diallel crossing design involving seven cultivars of tulips, Nieuwhof et al (1988) reported that carotenoid content was governed by non-additive gene action, whereas another study on spring wheat (Triticum durum) showed that the grain carotenoids were controlled by genes with additive effects (Bebyakin and Starichkova 1992).…”

“…On the basis of a study using a diallel crossing design involving seven cultivars of tulips, Nieuwhof et al (1988) reported that carotenoid content was governed by non-additive gene action, whereas another study on spring wheat (Triticum durum) showed that the grain carotenoids were controlled by genes with additive effects (Bebyakin and Starichkova 1992). However, a study on tomato showed that both additive and dominance (or non-additive) gene action occurred in the same crop (Ognyanova and Moinova 1973).…”

Flower pigment composition in Tulipa

“…Assuming that the appropriate enzymes are present to synthesize cyanidin and especially delphinidin, then pelargonidin is absent or present at low levels, otherwise pelargonidin can accumulate . Such an accumulative effect was indeed found in F1 populations after crossing selected parents, and low levels of cyanidin were accompanied by a high amount of pelargonidin (Nieuwhof et al ., 1988) . However, an enzyme like 5'-hydroxylase has not been reported yet (Forkmann, 1991) .…”

“…The success after crossing T. gesneriana with T. greigii is variable (van Eijk et al ., 1991) . Based on other crossing experiments it was concluded that additive as well as non-additive gene actions are involved in -2 -1 flavonoid synthesis (Nieuwhof et al ., 1988) . The two subgenera of the genus Tulipa are well separated in the cultivar space after principal component analysis ( Fig .…”

“…1) without affecting the other reactions regulated by dfr is reported in Petunia (van Tunen, 1990) . Above that, several genes coding for the same enzyme with an additive effect may be assumed (Nieuwhof et al ., 1988), since several levels of concentration are found .…”