Malus, apple, inheritance, fruit acidity. SUMMARY Fruit acidity as such appears to be gouverned by a single major gene, low acidity being a recessive character . The additional genetic variation is explainable by the additive gene action model . This mode of inheritance causes the pH distribution of seedlings in progenies to shift with a higher mid-parent pH towards more lowacid cum sweet (pH 3 3 .8) and fewer high-acid cum sour (pH <_ 2 .9) seedlings or vice versa with a lower midparent pH . As a result, in crosses between heterozygotes (Mama) the total proportion of undesirable seedlings low plus high-acid ones-, remains similar, irrespective of the mid-parent pH . This proportion constituted about one third of the seedlings . A same proportion, but of mainly sour plants, was found in crosses between relatively acid homozygotes (Mama) or between these and similar heterozygotes . It was less than one quarter if the heterozygous partner was medium-acid and a few percentages only when both the homozygous and heterozygous partner were medium-acid . Choosing parents in the absence of information, chances are that the very large majority of the medium-acid types are heterozygotes, that among the relatively acid ones one in two is homozygous and that the odds to find homozygotes among the sour types are probably best . Attention was drawn to the importance of a high sugar content -which is quantitatively inherited -in parents with a relatively low pH to increase the chances of selecting seedlings with a good sugar/acid ratio .
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