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GULF COAST EXPERIMENT STATION HUME LIB
5 Bradenton, Florida

Mimeo Report GCS70-3 Febr!a i?, 1970

Some Characteristics Associated with Compact Inflo ee irJi bFlorida
(Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.

Pat Crill, Ben Villalon and J. W. Strobel
Assistant Professor Gulf Coast Experiment Station, Assistant
Professor Sub-Tropical Experiment Station, and Professor and
Head Gulf Coast Experiment Station, respectively, University
of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultu~a-l Sciences, Ga-.''es-
ville, Florida

An off-type plant occurred in a commercial field of the tomato cultivar

'Homestead 24' (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) that was recognized by the

owner, Mr. Lewis Witt, Ft. Pierce, Florida, and donated by him to Professor

N. C. Hayslip of the University of Florida. Seed from this single plant

was planted in the field at the Sub-Tropical Experiment Station at Home-

stead, Florida. Resulting plants were grown in the field from October,

1967, to February, 1968. All the plants produced fruit in clusters with

the pedicel detaching just above the calyx (Figure 1). All plants appeared

identical to the parent plant. The fruit separation condition was phenotypi-

cally intermediate between the normal jointed and the jointless allele (1,0).

Normal fruit usually have a joint in the pedicel about 1 cm above the calyx.

Plants which carry the jointless, or J2, gene produce pedicels without a

joint and fruit separate from the plant free of both pedicel and calyx (4).

Harvested fruit from plants exhibiting the compact inflorescence character

have the calyx attached but the extended pedicel of the normal jointed type

is absent (Figure 2), because fruit separation occurs frmediately above the

calyx.

The production of fruit in clusters due to the compact nature of the

flowers appeared similar to the recessive bushy mutant (bu) which MacArthur

(2) produced by radiation. The overall appearance of the off-type plant

2 -

did not fit the description of bu however, and spontaneous appearance of a

radiation produced mutant would appear to be a very rare occurrence that

should merit further consideration. The name compact inflorescence was

suggested by Dr. C. M. Rick for describing this new mutant (3).

Crosses were made in the greenhouse at Sub-Tropical Experiment Station

using five inbred lines as female parents, STEP 560, STEP 530, 393-9-D2-D1,

Tropic and Floradel with tt= as the male parent. Seed were harvested and

the Fl plants grown at the Heinz Research Station in Bowling Green, Ohio,

during the 1968 spring season. None of the FI plants exhibited the compact

inflorescence fruit separation characteristic.

One of the F2 populations (STEP 560 x compact inflorescence) was grown

at Sub-Tropical Experiment Station and four were grown at the Gulf Coast Exper-

iment Station during the 1968 fall season. All populations were grown in the

field using procedures routine to both areas. Plant counts for segregating

types were made by two individuals and checked for discrepancies. Any count

in which the two were not identical was checked again by both persons involved

and an accurate count obtained in this manner.

The F2 segregations for normal versus compact inflorescence type of

fruit separation are shown in Table 1 along with chi-square probability values

for two recessive genes. Chi-square tests for each population indicate, with

various levels of confidence, that two recessive genes are in operation. When

an average chi-square analysis is conducted using combined data from all five

populations, a P value of 0.43 is obtained for two recessive genes.

Five F3 populations were developed from F2 selections for further study.

Three of these F3 populations were from a jointless x compact inflorescence

(CTE? 560 x compact inflorescence) cross and two from a.jointed x compact

inflorescence (393-9-D2-1 x compact inflorescence) cross. All fruit on one

F2 plant (STEP 560 x compact inflorescence-1) separated jointless (Table 2).

Fruit on all other F2 plants in this study separated with the calyx attached.

-3-

20 plants of each of the five F3 populations were grown at Sub-Tropical Experi-

ment Station and simulated machine harvested on February 11, 1970. The F3 pop-

ulations developed from the 4 F2 plants which exhibited compact infloresence

type of fruit separation all bred true. The 3 fruit which separated jointless,

compared to the 1654 which did not, can be ignored for all practical purposes.

The F3 population from the F2 plant on which all fruit separated as jointless

did not breed true but separated 98 jointless: 537 with calyx attached but no

pedicel.

The compact infloresence genetic material appears promising for use in

both hand pick and machine harvest fresh market tomatoes. The most promising

feature of the material is the concentration of fruit set obtained.

LITERATURE CITED

1. Butler, L. Inherited characters in the tomato. II. Jointless pedicel.

J. Hered. 27:25-26. 1936.

2. Butler, L. The linkage map of the tomato. J. Hered. 43:25-35. 1952.

3. Crill, Pat, Ben Villalon and J. W. Strobel. Inheritence of compact

inflorescence in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.). Tomato

Genetics Cooperative 19: 1965. (In press).

4. Rick, C. M. and A. C. Sawant. Factor interactions affecting the

phenotypic expression of the jointless character in tomatoes.

nmer. Soc. for Hort. Sci. Proceedings 66:354-360. 1955.

Table 1. F2 segregations for normal versus compact inflorescence type of

fruit separation in tomato.
P values
Parents Numbers of Progeny (2 recessive genes)
Normal Witt

STEP 560 x compact inflorescence 75 5 1.00
STEP 530 x compact inflorescence 42 2 0.64
393-9-D2-DI x 33 4 0.36
TROPIC x 27 2 0.64
Floradel x 30 4 0.23
Sum 207 17 mean = 0.43

Table 2. Total number of fruit obtained from 20 plants by simulated me-

chanical harvesting and segregation for compact inflorescence

and jointless types of fruit separation.

Parents and Number of fruit per plant with
designation of F3 compact inflorescence jointless
families separation separation

STEP 560 x compact inflorescence 1 537 98
STEP 560 x compact inflorescence 2 825 1
STEP 560 x 3 829 2
393-9-D2-1 x 1 430 0
.93-9-D2-1 x 2 338 0

/---..~. irll.

Figure 1. The compact infloresence
character as it appears when fruit
are mature groon. here ore 10 fruit
in this cluster.

~'V. .
* V

N -**

' -~"

f.iguro 2. Throo typose of fruit orpnration in tomato. Loft u normal Jointed,
(o.rtor oo,'not irlnlo:rocoonoo, Ki:hlt joinb.losn.

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