Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 April 2009
Interspecific crosses between, different genotypes and species of Nicotiana have revealed S gene polymorphism on a large scale. In the usually yellow-flowered self-compatible species N. glauca a strain occurs that has a self-incompatibility gene which is tightly linked with the bright-red corolla colour gene. In self-incompatible species, there are two kinds of self-incompatibility alleles, SI and SFI, distinguished on the basis of the acceptability of N. langsdorffii pollen. The SI form has a large number of alleles whereas the SFI form has only two, SF10 and SF11. The SI alleles are again divisible into two groups on the basis of the acceptability of N. noctiflora pollen and, on the same criterion, the two SFI alleles, SF10 and SF11, also are distinguishable. N. noctiflora and N. bonariensis plants could be divided into two and three groups respectively on the basis of interspecific compatibility relationships. When plants of each species were crossed among themselves, they formed two and three intra-incompatible and inter-compatible groups respectively, identical with those found on the basis of interspecific compatibility relationships. The significance of this observation is at present not fully understood.