Inheritance of Morphological and Physiological Characteristics in Taraxacum officinale

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Inheritance of Morphological and Physiological
Characteristics in Taraxacum officinale

• Anton M. Clemmons and David L. Robinson,
  Department of Biology, Bellarmine College,
  Louisville, KY, 40205

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Introduction

• One of the reasons that dandelion (Taraxacum
  officinale Weber) is a common weed in Kentucky
  (and the world) is its high reproductive
  capacity.
• Dandelion reproduces pomictically which is a
  type of reproduction where the embryos develop
  asexually.

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Introduction

• There are reports, however, of sexual
  reproduction in dandelion (Solbrig and Simpson,
  1975).

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Purpose

• Experiments were performed to explore the
  genetic variability and heritability of various
  morphological/ physiological traits that occur in
  natural populations.

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Objectives

• 1) Examine dandelion germination response to
  three different temperature treatments (37oC,
  21oC, 5oC), and select achenes that germinated
  under these different conditions for later
  progeny testing. (Experiment 1)

• 2) Investigate the amount of genetic diversity in
  dandelions by comparing the morphological
  characteristics of plants representing five
  different populations collected in Kentucky,
  Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, and Minnesota.
  (Experiment 2)

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Objectives

• 3) Explore the heritability of fasciation in
  dandelion. (Experiment 3)

• 4) Explore the Morphological Characteristic of
  Dandelion found in the Joe Creason Park.
  (Experiment 4)

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Materials

• ? Achenes from a single dandelion population were
  subjected to a different temperature treatments.

• ? Achenes (progeny) from the heat tolerant plants
  (as well as control plants) were collected and
  grown to maturity. These second-generation plants
  are currently being induced to flower so that the
  third-generation response to temperature can be
  assessed.

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Materials

• ? Achenes, collected from dandelion populations
  occurring in five different U.S. states, were
  germinated and grown to maturity in a controlled
  environment.

• ? Achenes from 19 different fasciated (deformed)
  plants were planted into individual containers,
  and grown in a controlled environment to examine
  the inheritance of their deformity.

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Result
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Result
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Results
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Results
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Results
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Results
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Image
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Conclusion

• These experiments show that there are significant
  amounts of genetic variability in dandelions, in
  spite of the fact that they primarily reproduce
  asexually.