SOME EFFECTS ON FRUIT SIZE OF CHROMOSOME 2 OF THE TOMATO

Abstract

Fruit weights taken from two F2's of 1500 plants indicated that the genes d p o s Lc dil and suf all affect fruit weight. The recessive alleles, except suf and Lc, were associated with small fruit size. The data were analyzed to determine whether this association was the result of linkage or pleiotropic effects. The major effect occurred in the o region, which is some 44 units from the centromere of chromosome 2. The o gene makes the genes oval or pear-shaped instead of spherical, and it is shown that when the locule wall of a spherical fruit and an oval fruit are composed of the same number of cells, the spherical fruit is always heavier. Since cell number is the inherited unit of fruit size, then o is always associated with small size. A gene controlling number of locules, which affects fruit size, is also located in this section of the chromosome. The genes d and s, which are at opposite ends of the present linkage map, both appear to be linked with fruit size genes. It is suggested that these size genes lie in the hetero-chromatin which is adjacent to both ends of the linkage map. The genes dil and suf, which were produced by radiation of the same variety, appear to have pleiotropic effects on fruit size; suf increasing, and dil decreasing fruit size.