Inheritance of Purple Pigmentation in Carica papaya Linn. (Caricaceae)

This study was conducted at Ile-Ife to investigate the inheritance of purple colour pigmentation in Carica papaya. Seeds of fruits from both female and hermaphroditic purple petiole Carica papaya were planted separately and plant populations of purple and green petiole C. papaya in Ile-Ife were observed for pigmentations. Plants from both female and hermaphroditic pawpaw segregated for green and purple petiole colour in an equal ratio of 1 purple: 1 green. The study show that there is pleiotropic effect as purple colour pigmentation was noticed on the petal, peduncle, fruit rind, fruit stalk, and on the stem of all male, female and hermaphroditic purple petiole pawpaw investigated. The purple pigmentation is likely to be dominant over green pigmentation which does not explain the prevalence of green petiole over purple petiole in population of C. papaya at Ile-Ife.