FUNCTIONAL MALE STERILITY IN EGGPLANT: INHERITANCE AND LINKAGE TO THE PURPLE FRUIT COLOR GENE

Abstract

The functional male sterile (fms) eggplant (Solanum melohgena L.) germplasm UGA 1-MS was crossed with two cultivars, `UGA 18 White' and `Florida Market' with normal anthers to derive F1, F2, and BC populations. Functional male sterility (fms) was governed by a single recessive allele. The gene symbol fms is proposed for this male sterile characteristic. The functional male sterility gene was linked to purple fruit color at the X/x locus. Our observations also revealed that the purple or violet color ware not only on the fruit peel, but also on the anthers and leaf buds if the eggplant fruit was purple or violet. In the transmission of parents and progenies of the cross of UGA 1-MS × `UGA 18 White', the purple line on the anther and leaf bud purple color ware tightly associated with fruit purple color. Thus, it is assumed that the allele X controls not only purple fruit, but also the expression of the purple line on the anther and purple leaf bud.