The reproductive characters, phyllotaxis of the floral shoots and morphogenesis in sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.)

The variability of some reproductive characters in sugar beet, to be more exact the phyllotaxis characters was investigated. Flowers (and fruits) on the sugar beet floral shoot are arranged spirally. One of the phyllotaxis characters is a distribution of the number of spirals in the shoot. This character is subject to the normal distribution law. The same kind of distribution is typical for other reproductive characteristics in sugar beet (number of fruits on the shoot, length of shoot).The spiral number per length unit on the floral shoot are also obeying to the normal distribution and varying about 4 times. This character is defined as the shoot length and the fruit arrangement (dense or arrangement). Unlike other reproductive characters, the phyllotaxis characters belong to the spatial (geometric) characters. By its description were used invariants as a model: the golden ratio and Fibonacci sequence. For each shoot was estimated a phyllotaxis index (the number of left and right spirals on the shoots) by comparing the number of fruits on the shoots and the Fibonacci numbers from three recurrent numerical successions. The relation of phyllotaxis indices and other reproductive characters was studied. Phyllotaxis characters are reproduced independently on both quantitative characters (length of shoots and number of spirals on the shoots) and quality characters (a flower number in inflorescences: unianthy-synanthy or mono-multigerm characters). It is discussed a probable morphogenesis process of the phyllotaxis characters, that on the one hand are formed depending on the cell morphogenes activity, and on the other, are determined by symmetrics of the some structures and parts of plants, and also morphogenetic fields created by molecules, cells and plant as a whole in the course of growth and development.