Genetic studies of fruit color and hardness in Perilla frutescens.

Abstract

Inheritance of the color and the hardness of fruits was investigated in the progenies of intercrosses between two varieties, Egoma and Shiso, which belong to Perilla frutescens. The results of experiments showed that the fruit color (white vs. brown) is controlled by an incomplete dominant gene W, which is responsible for the thickening of the epidermal cell wall of pericarp. On the other hand, the hard fruit proved to be due to duplicate genes, T1 and T2, which cause the unusual thickening of the stone cell layer in pericarp.