Potato leaf vs regular leaf

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by WVTomatoMan

Carolyn,

I've been meaning to ask, but I keep forgetting. Do you happen to know if a mule (aka bull) plant would be considered a spontaneous mutation or a somatic mutation? Do you want me to guess?

I'm going to embarrass myself and go ahead and guess. My first guess would be spontaneous mutation. But, I have reservations with that because I suspect more than one gene might be involved. Therefore, I'm going to go with somatic mutation and that's my final answer.


Randy

Randy, I've grown several mule plants and they are normal in every way except they don't form blossoms.

Now that could be due to a seed DNA mutation in either a gene leading up to the formation of either the male OR female strutures of the blossom or it could be the same for a somatic mutation, except if it were a somatic mutation it would only occur on the branch where that mutation took place and blossoms should be fine on the rest of the plant.

And for a seed DNA mutation all it would take is a single spontaneous mutation in a gene involved in EITHER the female or male blossom structures, b'c either one would lead to no blossom.

To further complicate things a bit, there were several of us involved in working with what was called a Yellow Prue and I'd suggested that if it were a somatic mutation that mutation would have to occurred at the very base of the plant. As it turned out the person who found it was wrong so I never had to think about it again.

And in the fields of hybrids of my farmer friend Charlie one could always spot a mule b'c those plants were much bigger than the others that had blossoms.

Well I remember having two plants of Limmony out there and one plant was a mule and the other was just fine.

And that's my guess as well, meaning probably a seed DNA mutation b'c a somatic mutation would NOT affect blossom fo\r mation all over the plant, just on the branch where that somatic mutation took place.