BREEDING OF THE TETRAPLOID YELLOW-FLOWERED CYCLAMEN WITH “EYE”

Since all yellow-flowered cyclamen (Cyclamen persicum Mill.) cultivars are diploid and do not have “eye” in the petals, the breeding of tetraploid yellow-flowered cyclamen with “eye” in the petals was examined.

A tetraploid yellow-flowered cyclamen with “eye” was induced by colchicine treatment.
The petals of the tetraploid were larger than those of the diploid relative and the yellow color of petals in the tetraploid was deeper than in the diploid relative.
The tetraploid was crossed with ‘Bonfire’ which is a tetraploid red-flowered cultivar with “eye” in the petals.
Although all the F₁ progenies were not yellow-flowered, some F₂ progenies were yellow-flowered.
The segregation ratio of F₂ progenies with yellow petals to those with other-colored petals fitted the expected Mendelian ratio, which is shown in the case that the yellow-flowered characteristic was induced by a recessive gene.
Many tetraploid yellow-flowered F₂ progenies had red or reddish-purple “eye” in their petals.
The yellow-flowered progenies had larger and deeper-yellow petals than diploid yellow-flowered cultivars.

As some tetraploid yellow-flowered F₃ progenies did not have “eye” in their petals, yellow-flowered cyclamen with “eye” could not be successfully maintained by seed propagation.
However, some tetraploid yellow-flowered cyclamen with “eye” could be propagated by in vitro culture, and they were successfully maintained by micropropagation.

III International Symposium on New Floricultural Crops

T. Takamura, T. Sugimura, M. Tanaka, T. Kage

Cyclamen persicum, colchicine treatment, chalcone, chalcononaringenin-2′-glucoside, petal color, micropropagation

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1998.454.14