Skewed recombination in a rare interspecific jute hybrid

Abstract

Islam and Rashid and Swaminathan et al. have recently described the morphological and cytological characteristics of the F₁ hybrids between the two cultivated jute species, Corchorus olitorius L. and C. capsularis L. The F₁ plants studied were intermediate in phenotype, but an interesting genetic situation was found when we examined the F₂ and F₃ generations of two hybrids of C. olitorius (♀) × C. capsularis . Chromosome associations during microsporogenesis were analysed in the two F₁ hybrids, and five bivalents and one quadrivalent, or one trivalent and a univalent, occurred in several cells at diakinesis and metaphase I (ref. 2). One of the bivalents was heteromorphic. The F₂ progenies of these two hybrids contained more than 40 per cent of non-viable seedlings. Also, about 11 per cent of the F₂ population had various types of chlorophyll deficiency, abnormalities in leaf shape and poor vigour.