Chemical Effect of a Mendelian Factor for Flower Colour

Abstract

IN a letter published in NATURE of June 27, 1931, Miss Scott Moncrieff mentions an interesting case of flower-colour inheritance in Pelargonium. On selling, a rose-pink variety gave seventeen offspring like itself and three others producing salmon-pink flowers. The rose-pink petals contained the anthocyanin pigments, cyanin and pelargonin (the latter only as a trace); the salmon-pink petals, pelargonin only. That is, the dominant factor in colour inheritance causes cyanin to be formed almost entirely instead of pelargonin. This factor, therefore, as pointed out by Miss Scott Moncrieff, brings about the insertion of a hydroxyl group in the phenyl ring, which process may be regarded as one of oxidation.