A Cytological Study of the Sweet Potato Plant Ipomoea Batatas (L.) Lam. and its Related Species

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Abstract
The sweet potato usually shows normal meiotic cell divisions, with the exception of the phenomena of secondary association of bivalents at metaphase I.; univalent formation in the variety L9-32 is the single exception. The gametic chromosome number in Ipomoea batatas was n = 45 in all of the 7 varieties studied. Related species had gametic chromosome numbers as follows: I. gracilis R. Br. (I. fastigiata Sweet), I. tiliacea (Willd.) Choisy n = 30, I. asarifolia (Desr.) Roem. and Schult., I. caranea Jacq., I. arborescens G. Don, I. pendula Choisy, I. quinquefolia L. n = 15. Of 3000 interspecific crosses with I. batatas made during a 3-year period, none produced a viable F1 hybrid. Based upon this cytological study, House''s theory, that the modern sweet potato plant originated from I. tiliacea by cultivation, must be rejected.

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