Abstract

The inheritance of crinkled leaf '-a new abnormal mutant spotted as a rogue in the seventh generation of an inter-racial cross in G. arboreum L. viz. indicum s cernuum was reported carlier (Balasubrahmanyan and Santhanam, 1951). This type which was characterised by abnormal leaf crinkles, gave monofactorial inheritance in crosses with normal-leaved parents. The F.1 exhibited partial dominance for leaf crinkling with intermediate grades of crinkled leaves and the F.2 segregated in the ratio of. 1:2:1 respectively for normal, F. 1 and crinkled phenotypes. Both the parental classes bred true in the F. 3 while the intermediates' again threw out the three phenotypes in the ratio of 1:2:1. It was sought to study heterosis effects, if any, in a segregating population drawn from the crinkled leaf crosses, as the three geno- types were morphologically distinguishable here.. In wheat, Granhall (1949) utilised a similar advantage in recognising heterozygous half- bearded plants in a population for the beardness factor and found that the heterozygotes in the F.2 were on an average more, vigorous than the beardless' and bearded', parental class of segregates.

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