Abstract: A leaf color yellowing mutant‘chl861-2’and its normal leaf near-isogenic line ‘0643-1’were used to study their leaf color change trend，chlorophyll content and several agronomic traits. The mutant had a chlorophyll-deficient characteristic. Its leaf color yellowing phenomenon was exhibited since the cotyledon stage and throughout the growth period. Its cotyledon was light yellow，true leaf color was yellow. The mutant plants grew slowly，dwarfed，and prolonged their growth period. The fruits of mutant plants were significantly smaller than those of the wild type，and the fruit weight was about 71.58% of that of the wild type. The contents of total chlorophyll，chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b in the mutant were significantly lower than those in the wild type at the seedling stage，the first flowering stage，and the fourth fruiting stage. The net photosynthetic rate（Pn）of the mutant was significantly lower than that of the wild type at the seedling stage and the flowering stage，which stomata conductance（Gs）and transpiration rate（Tr）were lower than those of the wild type，and its intercellular CO2 concentration （Ci）is higher than the wild-type. The inheritance of the leaf color yellowing trait of‘chl861-2’was analyzed by using the segregating populations derived from the crosses between‘chl861-2’and three normal leaf color inbred lines. The results showed that the leaf color yellowing trait was controlled by a recessive nuclear single gene，which was named Smchl-1.

Key words: eggplant, mutant, leaf color yellowing, chlorophyll content, photosynthetic characteristic, genetic analysis