Summary
A study of 172 unnamed populations and 22 cultivars of Lotus corniculatus showed: (1) that all plants of most strains of both categories contained leaf tannins (total 172 strains); (2) that 6 strains were tannin-negative; and (3) that 16 strains were polymorphic. Because of the small number of tested plants per strain, the above frequency of polymorphism is probably underestimated. Tannin-negative or polymorphic strains are frequent in Iran and Turkey. Leaftannin production is inherited as a monogenic dominant with tetrasomic inheritance. Repeated scores suggest that some individuals always, others sometimes and yet others never produce leaf tannins. Mean tannin content of 6 cultivars was strongly negatively associated with mean cyanide content.
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Communicated by R. W. Allard
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Ross, M.D., Jones, W.T. A genetic polymorphism for tannin production in Lotus corniculatus and its relationship to cyanide polymorphism. Theoret. Appl. Genetics 64, 263–268 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00303776
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00303776