What Is It About Tri-Cots?

[travis]

From time to time, I see folks talk about tomato cotyledons with three petals in special terms.

Is there something special about tri-cots other than their rare appearance? Or is it just like a four leaf clover or something?

I ask because out of hundreds of seedlings so far this year, I have only noticed one tri-cot, and it's a Cherokee Green from Victory Seeds.

PV

[Sorellina]

I'm seeing one tricotyledon so far on one of my Violetta Lunga eggplants. I remember seeing at least one last year, but I didn't take notes as to which of the nightshades it was.

[travis]

"They generally turn out to be only unique for that trait." [kctomato]

I should've just let it go at that. But no ...

I had to look into it deeper. Too deep, in fact.

Then I stumbled across this:

Effect of Genetic Aberration in a Tomato Plant

"William Tinkle studied the characteristics of a tomato plant which had three cotyledons instead of the normal two. The first lateral structures formed on a seedling plant differ from true leaves and are called cotyledons. Some plants are monocotyledonous while others are dicotyledonous. Occasionally a genetic aberration of some sort will cause a plant to have one or two extra cotyledons. Thus, plants that ordinarily have two cotyledons may produce, on rare occasions, varieties with three or even four cotyledons.

"Dr. Tinkle found a tomato plant that had three cotyledons instead of the two that is normal for this plant. He collected seeds from this plant and studied the progeny produced from these seeds. From 100 seeds that he planted, 69 plants developed. Three of the plants had three cotyledons and 66 had normal two cotyledons. Planting seeds from the three tricotyledonous mutants produced seven plants with three cotyledons and 30 with two cotyledons.

"Dr. Tinkle studied the normal and mutant varieties with respect to fertility, vigor and resistance to frost. Although one might expect that a plant with an extra cotyledon, because of the extra surface exposed to light, might have an advantage, the plants with the extra cotyledon were found to be inferior to the normal plant in germination, rate of growth, and resistance to frost.

"Even some of the plants produced from the seeds of the mutant tricotyledon plant which bore the normal number of cotyledons (two) showed growth abnormalities. The mutant gene for the tricotyledonous condition is apparently recessive. That is, its effect is more weakly expressed than the normal gene for two cotyledons, which is dominant. Though the plants just mentioned were heterozygous, bearing the dominant normal gene as well as the recessive mutant gene and thus having two cotyledons, even the presence of the mutant gene in the heterozygous state weakened the plant.

"This example of a mutation which causes the abnormal presence of three cotyledons in a seedling tomato plant rather than the normal two and which results in the production of an inferior plant is additional evidence that mutations, being random changes in an incredibly complex and intricately coordinated genetic system, are inevitably harmful."

Source: http://www.crsq.org/crsq/articles/12/12_1a1.html
(... all the way down at the bottom of the page ...)

Lands o'Goshen! Now I'm gonna have to stone that goshdarnoodley heathen mutant tricot Green Cherokee to a pulp, burn it at the stake and spread its ashes in the gravel at the crossroads!

Should I also assume that the other three or four seedlings sprouted in the same cell are contaminated by this treif and rend them asunder as well?

PV

[travis]

"There is a PHD thesis on this very subject matter." [kctomato]

Very interesting.

I've done a brief search for Dr. William Tinkle and only come up with documents tied directly to creationist Web pages so far.

I'll look farther to see if there are more independent and scientific sources for this subject matter.

PV