Hybridisation experiments with protoplasts from chlorophyll-deficient mutants of someSolanaceousspecies

摘要

Following fusion between protoplasts from two different chlorophyll-deficient diploid mutants ofDatura innoxiaMill. it was possible to select 33 green hybrid calli on agar culture medium. Half of the somatic hybrids gave rise to leaves and some to shoots. The chromosome number of 20 somatic hybrids was determined: five were tetraploid, eight hexaploid, three octoploid, and four showed an aneuploid chromosome number. After transfer of the shoots of the five tetraploid hybrids to soil they developed roots. In control experiments in which protoplasts of the two mutants were cultured either as a mixture without being treated with the fusion agent, or cultured separately, no green callus could be obtained. Similar experiments involving protoplasts from one chlorophyll-deficient mutant ofDatura innoxia, on the one hand, and those from similar mutants ofNicotiana sylvestrisSpegazz. et Comes andPetunia hybrida, on the other, yielded no green somatic hybrid although hybrid protoplasts could be detected.