Solanum phureja genes are expressed in the leaves and tubers of aneusomatic potato dihaploids

Summary The expression of leaf isozymes and tuber patatin in dihaploids derived from the Solanum tuberosum cv. Pentland Crown was investigated. Seven of the dihaploids were aneusomatic containing additional chromosomes from the S. phureja dihaploid inducer. Of these, four genotypes expressed leaf isozymes characteristic of the S. phureja dihaploid inducer, and the tubers of three aneusomatic dihaploids contained a S. phureja form of patatin. Aneusomatic dihaploids in which the proportion of cells containing additional S. phureja chromosomes was relatively small (i.e. 1–15%) did not express leaf isozyme markers or patatin bands characteristic of the dihaploid inducer or showed only faint expression of one or two markers. However, those with a high proportion of cells containing additional chromosomes (50–55%) had a range of strongly expressed leaf isozymes that were characteristic of the dihaploid inducer and also expressed the S. phureja tuber patatin.One dihaploid genotype was exclusively euploid (2n<24), yet is expressed a S. phureja leaf isozyme marker and S. phureja tuber patatin, suggesting recombination or chromosome substitution between the genome of the S. phureja dihaploid inducer and the cultivar Pentland Crown.