ALLELISM OF ENDOSPERM BALANCE NUMBER (EBN) IN SOLANUM ACAULE BITT ANDOTHER WILD POTATO SPECIES

The inheritance of endosperm balance number (EBN), a genetic, dose-dep endent crossability system functioning in tuber-bearing Solanum (potat o) species, was investigated for certain wild potato species having an EBN equal to one half of their ploidy. The EBN of Solanum acaule, a d isomic 4(2EBN) South American species, was investigated by producing F -1 and F-2 hybrids with artificial 4x(2EBN) S. commersonii. This allow ed assessment of recombination among the two genomes of disomic S. aca ule and that of S. commersonii. When crossability of the hybrids with 1EBN, 2EBN and 4EBN standards was tested, no variation for EBN was det ected. The apparent lack of recombination and segregation for EBN in t hese hybrids indicates that the genomes of S. acaule and S. commersoni i carry EBN in a genetically-similar way. Combined with previous repor ts, these data indicate that the inheritance of EBN is similar in wide ly-separated taxa from South America and Mexico.