Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Genetic studies in dioecious melandrium. I

Sex-linked and sex-influenced inheritance inMelandrium album and Melandrium dioicum

  • Published:
Genetica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Sex-linked and sex-influenced inheritance are of interest because of their relation to the still intriguing problem of sex detrmination. Genes involved in the formation of the sex organs are regarded to be sex-determining genes. These genes may be present in all chromosomes including the sex-chromosomes. Other genes present in the sex-chromosomes, but not involved in sex determination, are the sex-linked genes. A mutation for narrow leaves we came across in ourM. ablum material is regarded as a case of sex linkage. Also the certation effect observed inM. album andM. dioicum must have been caused by genes on the sex-chromosomes. In both cases, however, it is not altogether unikekely, that the genes, regarded as sex-linked ones, actually take in the process of sex-determination.

Sex-determining genes might influence the effect of other genes, that are therefore called sex-influenced genes. We observed a number of such sex-influenced characters inMelandrium.

InM. album, female plants are, on the whole, larger than male plants, having larger stems and leaves. The petals, however, are larger in male plants, except in families with very broad petals. The leaves and petals are narrower in female plants than in male ones, except in families with very broad leaves and families with broad petals, where the difference in shape was no longer present. Usually, slightly more anthocyanin is formed in male plants than in females both in petals and the green parts. More glandular hairs were observed on male plants than on female ones.

Insofar the observations were made inM. dioicum the same results were obtained.

We regard these phenomena to be an expression of the different physiological conditions in female and in male plants, these conditions being provoked by the sex-determinging genes and more favourable for vegetative growth in female than in male plants.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Baker, H. G. (1947).Melandrium album andM. diocicum in the Biological Flora of the Britisch Isles.J. Ecol. 35: 271–292.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, H. G. (1948). The ecotypes ofMelandrium dioicum (L. emend.) Coss. and Germ.New Phytol. 47: 131–145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, H. G. (1951). The inheritance of certain characters in crosses betweenMelandrium dioicum andM. album.Genetica 25: 126–156.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bateson, W. &E. R. Saunders (1902). Experimental studies on the physiology of heredity.Rep. to the Evol. Comm. of the Royal Soc. 1: 3–160.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baur, E. (1910). Untersuchungen über die Vererbung von Chromatophoren merkmalen beiMelandrium, Antirrhinum undAquilegia.Z.I.A.V. 4: 81–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baur, E. (1911). Einführung in die experimentelle Vererbungslehre. Borntraeger, Berlin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baur, E. (1912). Ein Fall von geschlechtsbegrenzter Vererbung beiMelandrium album.Z.I.A.V. 8: 335–336.

    Google Scholar 

  • Correns, C. (1900). Ueber Levkoyenbastarde. Zur Kenntnis der Grenzen der Mendelschen Regeln.Bot. Zentralbl. 84: 111–126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Correns, C. (1903). Über die dominierende Merkmale der Bastarde.Ber. Dtsch. Bot. Ges. 21: 133–147.

    Google Scholar 

  • Correns, C. (1921). Zweite Fortsetzung der Versuche zur experimentellen Verschieben des Geschlechtsverhältnisses.Sitzungsber. d. Preuss. Akad. d. Wiss. Phys.-Mat. Klasse (1921): 330–354.

    Google Scholar 

  • Correns, C. (1922). Alkohol und Zahlenverhältnis der Geschlechter bei einer getrennt geschlechtigen Pflanze (Melandrium).Naturw. 49: 1049–1052.

    Google Scholar 

  • Correns, C. (1924). Über den Einflusz des Alters der Keimzellen. I.Sitzungsber. d. Preuss. Akad. d. Wiss. (1924): 70–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Correns, C. (1926). Über Fragen der Geschlechtsbestimmung bei höheren Pflanzen.Z.I.A.V. 41: 5–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goebel, K. (1913). Organographie der Pflanzen. Gustav Fischer, Jena.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartshorne, J. W. (1963). The heterogametic sex in dioecious flowering plants.Genetics today, Proc. XI Intern. Congr. Genetics I: 232. Pergamon Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence, C. W. (1963). Genetic studies on wild populations ofMelandrium. I. Chromosome behaviour.Heredity 18: 135–148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence, C. W. (1964). Genetic studies on wild populations ofMelandrium. II. flowring time and plant weight.Heredity 19: 149–163.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence, C. W. (1964). Genetic studies on wild populations ofMelandrium. III.Heredity 19: 1–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Löve, D. (1944). Cytogenetic studies on dioecious Melandrium.Botan. Notiser (1944): 125–214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nigtvercht, G. van (1966). Genetic studies in dioeciousMelandrium. II. Sex determination inM. album andM. dioicum.Genetica 37: 307–344.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schulz, A. (1890). Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Bestäubrungseinrichtungen und Geschlechtsverteilung bei den Pflanzen. II.Bibl. Bot. 17: 182–196.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shull, G. H. (1910). Inheritance of sex inLychnis.Bot. Gaz. 52: 110–125.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shull, G. H. (1911). Reversible sex-mutants inLychnis dioica.Bot. Gaz. 52: 329–368.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shull, G. H. (1914). Sex-limited inheritance inLychnis dioica L..Z.I.A.V. 12: 265–302.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanfield, J. F. (1937). Certain physico-chemical aspects of sexual differentiation inLychnis dioica.Am. J. Bot. 24: 710–719.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanfield, J. F. (1944). Chemical composition of roots and tops of dioeciousLychnis in vegetative and flowering phases of growth.Plant Physicol. 19: 377–383.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tutin, T. G., V. H. Heywood, N. A. Burges, D. H. Valentine, S. M. Walters &D. A. Webb (1964). Flora europaea. Cambridge Univ. Press. London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vries, H. de (1900). Das Spaltungsgesetz der Bastarde.Ber. Dtsch. Bot. Ges. 18: 83–90.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vries, H. de (1903). Die Mutationstheorie. Bd.2. Veit & Comp., Leipzig.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westergaard, M. (1946). Aberrant Y-chromosomes and sex expression inMelandrium album.Hereditas 32: 419–443.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winger, Ø. (1917). The chromosomes. Their numbers and general importance.Comptes rendus du Lab. Carlsberg 13: 131–175.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winge, Ø. (1927). On a Y-linked gene inMelandrium.Hereditas 9: 274–284.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winge, Ø. (1931). X-and Y-linked inheritance inMelandrium.Hereditas 15: 127–165.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winge, Ø. (1932). The nature of sex-chromosomes.Proc. Sixth Intern. Congr. Genetics 1: 343–355.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Genetics, State University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    G. Van Nigtevecht

Authors
  1. G. Van Nigtevecht
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Van Nigtevecht, G. Genetic studies in dioecious melandrium. I. Genetica 37, 281–306 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01547140

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01547140

Keywords

Search

Navigation