| Abstract: | Colchicine treatment of the triploid apple varieties ‘Paragon’ and ‘Stayman’ resulted in 6–3–3 and 3–6–6 chimeras, and 6–3–3 chimera in ‘Baldwin.’ Treatment of a triploid pear selection ‘U.S. 44–3–1’ resulted in totally 6x as well as 6–3–3 and 3–6–6 chimeras. As triploid plants are not suitable for breeding, sexually hexaploid forms (totally 6x or chimeral 3–6–6) of high-quality triploid apples and pears may become very useful as breeding material. The primary purpose of treating the ‘Stayman’ apple was to obtain a 6–3–3 chimera to find out if large cells in the epidermis would reduce or eliminate the severe cracking of fruit of this variety which occurs in some seasons. Chimeral forms in the other plants were to serve as material for comparison with the ‘Stayman’ variety. Observations on the fruit-cracking problem will have to wait until the chimeral plants fruit. Hexaploid tissue in chimeral shoots of all affected plants has grown more slowly than triploid tissue, causing various degrees of malformation of the leaves. Similar reduction in growth due to restricted ploidization in 4–2–2 or 2–4–4 chimeras has not resulted in many other plants, including apples and pears, but was reported in an 8–4–4 chimera in cranberry. Slower growth of 6x tissue in the apple and pear may be attributed to the presence of multiple homologous genes in the duplicated chromosome forms of these particular triploid plants. |
