Frequent reversion and continuous size variation in the small fruit mutant ‘Totsutanenashi’ persimmon

Fruit size is a commercially important trait of fruit tree species.
In many cases, it is under polygenic control.
Fruit size differentiation that occurs from bud sport mutants provides good samples for the elucidation of the complex molecular and genetic basis of fruit size determination and will benefit the development of breeding strategies that are focused on fruit size. ‘Totsutanenashi’ (TTN) persimmon, bearing small-sized fruit, is a bud-sport mutant of ‘Hiratanenashi’ (HTN), an important persimmon cultivar in Japan.
The fruit of TTN is significantly smaller than that of HTN, making TTN a suitable subject for the study of fruit-size determination mechanisms.
Recently, multiple reverse mutations leading to large fruit were found as bud-sports on different TTN trees.
Additionally, large variations in fruit size were observed among different TTN branches.
The variation was branch-dependent and the reverted fruits, which were larger than TTN fruit, were observed for two successive years in the same branch.
A heritable factor was, therefore, suggested to be involved in the variation.
Collectively, TTN and its revertants are appropriate plant materials for investigating possible genetic and epigenetic systems involved in fruit-size changes.

III Asian Horticultural Congress – AHC2020

S. Wang, C.L. Tam, I. Naito, S. Nishiyama, R. Tao

bud sport, mutant, fruit size, revertant, physiology

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2021.1312.18