Re: yellow color in Hosta
- To: hosta-open@mallorn.com
- Subject: Re: yellow color in Hosta
- From: h*@open.org
- Date: Sat, 21 Aug 1999 08:55:44 -0700 (PDT)
Jim:
>In fact, yellow variegations are often hard to see in the lab. The
>yellow color develops only after the plant is put into high light
>conditions. This would seem to be counter to your argument about the
>yellow color and its conversion requiring sunlight.
Actually, not really. Some plants need light to trigger the final
conversion of chlorophyll precursor to chlorophyll. However, in a
yellow leaved hosta it is most likely a dominant inhibitor that is
blocking the final conversion of percursor to chlorophyll. I suspect
this inhibitor is probably present in different allelic forms. Many
of these inhibitor genes in plants are temperature sensitive. I had a
terrible problem with this in doing studies of anthocyanidin
pigmentation in carrot roots. When we would cut the roots in the
field the carrots might be light purple, but after they were in cold
storage a few weeks they would be dark purple. Some hostas start out
green and turn yellow later in the summer when the temperatures get
warmer and in others they start out yellow and get more green as the
summer progresses. This could be a combination of temperature, light
levels and diferent alleles of the inhibitor.
Joe Halinar
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