Inheritance of Pigmentation in some Plant Parts in Pearl Millet

The mode of inheritance of pigmentation of various plant parts was determined in pearl millet. Purple colour of bristles was found to be controlled by two dominant complementary genes Bep₁ and Bep₂. Purple foliage, purple glumes and red nodes showed similar genetic behaviour. Gene symbols Pp₁ Pp₂, Pg₁ Pg₂ and Rn₁ Rn₂ are proposed for purple foliage, purple glumes and red nodes respectively. Monogenic segregation depicting the presence of one of the two genes in the tester stocks was observed in some crosses for these characters. Red pigmentation of stem was due to the presence of a gene Rp which is inhibited by a non-allelic gene.