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Contents of Chlorophylls a and b in Chlorophyll-Deficient Mutants of Sweetclover¹

Leaf extracts from twelve chlorophyll-deficient mutants of sweetclover (Melilotus alba Desr.) were compared spectrophotometrically and chromatographically with extracts from normal plants to determine contents of chlorophylls a and b. Total chlorophyll contents in cotyledons and leaves of all mutants were significantly lower than those in corresponding tissues of normal plants. Chlorophyll contents were generally higher in later emerging leaves of both normal and mutant plants. Chlorophyll a/b ratios in first trifoliolate leaves were similar to normal in mutants ch₇ and ch₈, higher in mutants ch₆, ch₉, ch₁₀, and ch_1l, and extremely high in mutant ch₄. A lower than normal a/b ratio was observed in mutant ch₁₂. The four allelic ch₅ mutants were unique in that chlorophyll b was not detected in any of the tissue extracts. The mutants appear to be only the third reported instance in higher plants of a viable mutant lacking chlorophyll b, the previously reported cases being in barley (Hordeum vulgare) and Arabldopsis thaliana.

Key Words: Melilotus alba • Ethyl methanesulfonate

² Former graduate assistant, now assistant professor of agronomy; Bert Rodgers Professor of Agronomy, Univ. of Nebraska; and research geneticist, ARS-USDA, Lincoln, NE 68503, respectively.

Received for publication May 5, 1975.

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