Gene Transfer of Multiple Flowers and Pubescent Leaf from Capsicum chinense into Capsicum annuum Backgrounds

Abstract

The inheritance of multiple flowers and leaf pubescence resulting from the crosses between accessions from pepper species Capsicum annuum L. and C. chinense Jacq. was examined. Hand cross- and self-pollinations were made in a glass greenhouse. Only eight normal F 1 plants were obtained from crosses between the two species when C. annuum L. was the female parent. F 2 and backcross generations obtained from the F, and the two parents were grown in the field. Two field studies indicated that multiple flowers and leaf pubescence were controlled by dominant genes. A three-gene model leading to an F 2 segregation ratio of 45:9:10 and a two-gene model leading to an F 2 segregation ratio of 13:3 were suggested for the inheritance of multiple flowers and leaf pubescence, respectively. Epistasis was evoked in the interpretation of the data. No linkage was found between the two characters. The inconsistencies between F 2 and backcross data might be due to selective elimination of genes from one or the other parent in an Interspecific hybridization. Segregation ratios from intraspecific crosses for leaf pubescence supported a two-gene model and gave an F 2 ratio of 13 pubescent leaf : 3 glabrous leaf progeny.