[The heredity of flower colors and the discovery of flower color chimera in chrysanthemum species].

The reciprocal crosses of yellow colored chrysanthemum x red colored chrysanthemum and white colored chrysanthemum x red colored chrysanthemum were conducted in order to analyze the heredity of flower colors. The results revealed that the heredity of flower colors was very complicated, and mainly exhibited matroclinous characteristics when red colored materials was used as maternal parent but not in the combinations when the yellow or white colored materials were used as maternal parents. The incomplete dominance and mosaic dominance also existed in the heredity of chrysanthemum flower colors. The flower-color chimeras with two kinds of flower buds were discovered in the cross of 3501 x 3509, i.e. one side of the flower buds was completely in red color, which was same as the parental material of 3509, and another side was generally in yellow color with red spots on them. Cytological analysis showed that two sides were both with 36 chromosomes, indicating that the formation of chimera was not resulted from the changes of chromosome numbers, but from the destruction of pigment synthesis genes by the insert of transposable element.