Inheritance of annual habit in celery: cosegregation with isozyme and anthocyanin markers

Abstract

Vernalization response was determined in an annual and two biennial celery strains, Apium graveolens L. and their F₂ hybrids. Although the annual strain did not require vernalization to bolt, plants exposed to 10°C for 7 days bolted 2 weeks earlier than non-treated plants. Inheritance studies based on F₂ and backcross segregations demonstrate that annual habit in celery is partially dominant over biennial and determined by a single gene designated Hb. Cosegregation studies of this trait with nine isozyme loci and a gene determining petiole anthocyanin pigmentation disclosed the following linkage relationships: Adh-1-Sdh-1-Mdh-1, and Got-1-Mdh-2-Hb-A. The recombination frequency observed for Hb and Mdh-2 was too large to use the latter as a useful marker for annual habit.