Selaginella kraussiana var. aurea is a pigment deficient cultivar with yellow–green foliage. When selfed, it produces green, yellow–green, and white (lethal) sporelings in a 1:2:1 ratio. This, together with results of further crosses show the aurea character to be controlled by a single nuclear gene with two partially dominant alleles. Chloroplasts of green sporelings possess a well-organized thylakoid system consisting of distinct grana and interconnecting frets. Plastids from yellow–green (aurea) sporelings exhibit a reduced thylakoid system with unusually long grana and aberrant fretwork. The reduced membrane content of aurea plastids is accompanied by a 60% deficiency in both chlorophyll and carotenoid content in mature aurea plants as compared with the green wild type. Plastids of white sporelings are irregular in shape and are apparently blocked at an early stage of development. They possess a very sparse, rudimentary membrane system. The aurea condition in S. kraussiana var. aurea is compared with similar conditions in tobacco, spruce, and soybean.
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Webster et al. (1980) studied this question.