Colchicine-induced desynaptic mutations in Lathyrus odoratus L. and L. pratensis L.

Abstract

Partially desynaptic mutant plants were observed in colchicine-treated, undoubled Lathyrus odoratus (2n = 14) and L. pratensis (2n = 14) and also in a L. odoratus (C1) seedling with 2n = 27 and in a triploid (C0) L. pratensis (2n = 21). The affected plants showed varying numbers of univalents at metaphase I and reduced fertility. A total of seven independent cases of desynapsis were observed. In diploid L. odoratus the cytology of one of the mutants was recorded for three consecutive generations and all the plants showed partial desynapsis. This suggested that the mutant plants were true breeding and the cytological abnormality was an inherited trait. Inheritance studies in partially and totally desynaptic mutant lines of diploid L. odoratus indicated that the two mutations were monogenic recessive, nonallelic, and not linked. Key words: Lathyrus, desynaptic mutation.