Skewed Recombination in a Rare Interspecific Jute Hybrid

Abstract

Islam and Rashid1 and Swaminathan et al.2 have recently described the morphological and cytological characteristics of the F1 hybrids between the two cultivated jute species, Corchorus olitorius L. and C. capsularis L. The F1 plants studied were intermediate in phenotype, but an interesting genetic situation was found when we examined the F2 and F3 generations of two hybrids of C. olitorius (♀) × C. capsularis (♂). Chromosome associations during microsporogenesis were analysed in the two F1 hybrids, and five bivalents and one quadrivalent, or one trivalent and a univalent, occurred in several cells at diakinesis and metaphase I (ref. 2). One of the bivalents was heteromorphic. The F2 progenies of these two hybrids contained more than 40 per cent of non-viable seedlings. Also, about 11 per cent of the F2 population had various types of chlorophyll deficiency, abnormalities in leaf shape and poor vigour.