Abstract
We tried to identify the unidentified Allium plant, 'Mushuu-ninniku', which resembles garlic (A. sativum L.) but has no garlic odor. 'Mushuu-ninniku' is much larger than a garlic. Its plant height and bulb weight are twice that of garlic. It develops many different sized cloves, inflorescences, and flowers, but no inflorescent bulbil. The chromosome number of 'Mushuu-ninniku' is 2n=32, similar to leek (A. ampeloprasum L.), but double that of garlic. In restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs), 'Mushuu-ninniku' produced patterns similar to those of leek and quite unlike those of great-headed garlic (A. ampeloprasum L.), which usually has a prominent bulb similar to 'Mushuu-ninniku'. Isozyme analyses also showed some similarity between 'Mushuu-ninniku' and leek. Although the alliinase mRNA size (1.9 kb) of 'Mushuu-ninniku' was identical to those of other Allium plants examined, the N-terminal 25 amino acids sequence of 'Mushuu-ninniku' alliinase was different from those of other Allium plants examined except leek. From these results, we concluded that 'Mushuu-ninniku' belongs to Allium ampeloprasum.
