Inheritance of flower colour and flavonoid pigments in Gerbera

The flower colour of Gerbera, an important ornamental cut flower, is derived from carotenoids and flavonoids. The knowledge of enzymological and genetic control of flavonoid biosynthesis is still incomplete. The present paper summarizes the results obtained at our institute between 1981 and 1993. The material for the investigation of phenotypic segregation and segregation of flavonoids after chromatographic analysis came from 408 progenies of controlled crosses. Phenotypic segregation analysis showed acyanic genotypes to be homozygous recessive and recessive epistatic over cyanic genotypes, respectively. This was confirmed by the existence of two loci controlling steps in biosynthesis (fht, dfr or ans) showing recessive mutants and complementary gene action after crosses. Flavone formation is effected by one dominant allele (fns⁺); dominant and recessive genotypes are now available. Regarding anthocyanidin inheritance, an unusual epistasis of 4′-hydroxylation (pelargonidin formation) over 3′,4′-hydroxylation (cyanidin formation) was observed. Final proof of the postulated gene actions will come from enzymological and molecular biological investigations of the chemogenetically defined Gerbera genotypes now available.