Re: yellow color in Hosta
- To: hosta-open@mallorn.com
- Subject: Re: yellow color in Hosta
- From: h*@open.org
- Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 08:22:01 -0700 (PDT)
Jim:
>Ben pointed out to me that yellow sports are not devoid of
>chlorophyll, but the yellow accessory pigments dominate the color of
>the leaf.
>Remove most of the chlorophyll and you get yellow, remove both
>pigments and you get white.
Chloroplast do contain carotene pigments that can give some yellowing
color ro a leaf. However, I would suspect that the yellow color in
most yellow leaved hostas is a late stage precursor to chlorophyll.
These late stage chlorophyll precursors are yellow colored. You can
see this by germinating many seeds in darkness - the cotyledons are
yellow, not green. Light is needed to tiger the final synthesis to
green chrolophyll. The dominant nature of yellow leaves in hosta
suggest that this dominant gene is an inhibitor gene of chlorophyll
synthesis that builds up the yellow precursor.
Joe Halinar
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