Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh
*Present address: Dept. of Botany, University of Madras, A.P.G. Centre, Tiruchirapalli-620 020.
The genetic interrelationship between Solarium melongena L. var. Pusa Purple Long and S. hispidum Pers. was determined by the study of the course of meiosis in their hybrids (F1). The hybrids were tall, erect and sterile, and did not set fruit. Some of the flowers of the hybrids were malformed with ill-developed abortive anthers. The sepals and petals, in these flowers, were enlarged, green and leaf like. The course of meiosis in the hybrids was highly irregular. The occurrence of a large number of univalents in several pollen mother cells besides a few cells with as many as 24 univalents, loose association of bivalent chromosomes with a very low frequency of chiasmata and the presence of bridges and fragments in a few cells at anaphase I may indicate the fundamental differentiation of the parental chromosomes by structural changes. The diplontic sterility of the hybrids is also recorded. It is concluded that the structural changes of the chromosomes have contributed mainly to the genetic distinctiveness and inhibition of fertile hybrids between S. melongena var. Pusa Purple Long and S. hispidum.
