Re: yellow leaf = nuclear encoded

Jim:

>The brief summary of the literature review  presented on yellow 
>hostas was taken almost verbatim (as best I could summarize) >from 
Vaughn's studies reported in AHS Bulletin 11 (1980) and 13 (1982).

I think you need to be careful in regard to putting to much into 
Vaughn's research that you refer to because he used a VERY limited 
number of hostas and his seedling populations were VERY limited.  He 
may well be correct for the plants he studied, but it is very unwise 
to extrapolate that to all hostas.  The problem we face right now is 
that there is quite a lack of knowledge regards hosta genetics.  I am 
willing to accept that mutated chloroplasts are responsible for some 
variegated hostas, but I am not willing to say that all chimeria 
variegation in hostas is due to mutated chloroplast.  What we need 
right now a is a LOT more research.  I'm planning on making some 
crosses this summer that will start this process, but I'm afraid that 
I can't spend full time on this project.  When we look at the 
complexity of sporting in hostas we have to say that it is more 
complex then can be explained by mutated chloroplast, simple layer 
switching, and even if mitotic recombination was a casual factor, even 
it couldn't account for all the complexity we see.  I isolated quite a 
few possible sports last year and after I look at them this year I 
will try to induce further sporting in them.  It will be a few months 
yet before I can fully evaluate this material.  Hopefully, I might 
have a better insight then I do now.  

Here is a possible project that we might undertake this summer.  
Everyone who has a hosta sport on them this year can take a picture of 
the sport and then we can compare all of these sports to see if there 
is anything interesting there.  Those who have a digital camera can 
easily help out here.  I would be willing to collect the images as 
long as they are not over 640x480, preferable smaller, and well under 
100K, preferable under 75K.  I don't have a writable CD, so it would 
probably be better to have someone collect the images who can burn 
them into a CD to distribute to those interested in the research.

Joe Halinar


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