Fertility in Crosses Involving Diploid and Autotetraploid Raspberries: II. Fruit and Seed Development

Variation in fruit and seed development following crosses betweendiploid and autotetraploid forms of raspberry cultivars is described. Drupelet set was sensitive to a large number of influences,and varieties differed in their response to such crosses but,once set, fruit growth was largely independent of seed development.Mailing Jewel had a high drupelet set as a seed parent. Chromosomedoubling reduced the fertility of both male and female gametes,but the effect was greater in the pollen where the ability toinduce set was impaired. This is ascribed to physiological ratherthan chromosomal causes. It is suggested that seed size in infertile crosses betweenplants of different ploidy depended on a balance between earlygrowth following the stimulus of fertilization and later slowergrowth due to a weakness in the endosperm. The rate of fruit maturation was more rapid on tetraploid seedparents, but otherwise showed few consistent features.