Inheritance of major spathe colors in Anthurium andraeanum hort.: Is determined by three major genes

The inheritance of spathe color in anthurium (Anthurium andraeanum Hort.) was studied in 77 crosses involving 59 parental genotypes. The progeny segregation into "colored : white" did not fit the genetic model proposed by Kamemoto et al. (1988), but fit a duplicate recessive epistasis model involving genes O and R, in which either O or R or both in the recessive form would result in white-spathed progeny. The progeny segregation into red or orange group was in agreement with the Kamemoto et al. (1988) model and is determined by the status of the M gene. The dosage effect of particularly the R gene accounted for the differentiation of reds from pinks and oranges from corals. Putative roles for the three genes (M, O, and R) in the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway are postulated.