Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore-7
*Approved for presentation by the Director, Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore.
Two types of chlorophyll deficiencies, namely albino and xanthophyllic, have been observed in Bambusa. Both of them are sub-lethals which die at 4-leaf stage.
Albino occurs in a ratio of 3 green: 1 albino indicating monogenic inheritance. The joint segregation of albino and xanthophyllic in the ratio of 9 green; 3 xanthophyllic: 4 albino indicates a dihybrid segregation modified by gene interaction.
Albinism in Bambusa is due to the homozygous recessive nature of a single locus to be designated as G. The xanthophyllic character is also due to a recessive allele to be designated as xa. In homozygous recessive condition xa is epistatic to G.
g and xa are pleiotropic. Green coleoptile colour is produced only when G and Xa are present. Recessive homozygosity at g, xa or both produces purple coleoptile.
