Flower, Fruit, and Petiole Color of American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana L.) Are Controlled by a Single Gene with Three Alleles

Abstract

American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) is a deciduous shrub native to the southeast United States and is grown primarily for its metallic-purple fruit that develop in the fall. There are also pink- and white-fruiting and variegated forms but these traits are rare in nature and there is no information available regarding their inheritance. Also, there is confusion regarding self-compatibility and the presence of apomixis in Callicarpa L. Crosses were performed to investigate the genetics of fruit color, self-compatibility, and apomixis in american beautyberry. Test crosses between C. americana (CA) and C. americana ‘Lactea’ (CAL) suggested that white fruit is recessive to purple. White fruit appears to be controlled by a single recessive gene for which we propose the name white fruit and the gene symbol wft. Although there were only a limited number of progeny grown, crosses between CA and ‘Welch’s Pink’ suggest that purple is dominant to pink. Test crosses between CAL and ‘Welch’s Pink’ are needed to draw conclusions; however, we propose that purple, pink, and white fruit are controlled by an allelic series for which we suggest the gene symbols Wft > wft p > wft. Segregation ratios suggested that all progeny in the study developed through sexual hybridization. All genotypes used in the current study were self-compatible.