New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science abstracts

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A natural sex mutant in kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa)

Raffaele Testolin
Rachele Messina
Orietta Lain
Guido Cipriani

Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie e Ambientali
University of Udine
Via delle Scienze 208
I-33100 Udine, Italy
email: raffaele.testolin@uniud.it

Abstract  A kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) natural sex mutant is described. The bud mutation occurred in a mature male vine and caused a gender change from male to female. The mutant (ser, sex reversal) carries apparently perfect flowers, with a well developed ovary and styles, but produces pollen that does not germinate and does not fertilise female genotypes. The ser mutant sets fruits when pollinated with pollen from the original or any other male, but not when selfed. The origin of the mutant as a sport mutation was confirmed by the identical genetic profile of both mutated and original canopy sectors at 12 microsatellite loci. Both the original and mutant parts of the vine were phenotypically stable on propagation by grafting. The paper discusses the likely genetic origin of the mutant and its usefulness for studying the genes that control dioecy in Actinidia.

Keywords  mutation; sex reversal (ser) mutant; sex control; dioecy; Actinidia

H03102; Received 14 November 2003; accepted 16 February 2004; Online publication date 15 June 2004
New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science, 2004, Vol. 32: 179-183
0014-0671/04/3202-0179 $7.00 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2004

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