Summary
Tetraploid Bromus ciliatus L. is a North American bromegrass that has been placed in the Pnigma section of Bromus. The objective of this study was to characterize the genome of tetraploid B. ciliatus by cytogenetic methods and compare it to the genomes of other species included in the section Pnigma. All the plants of the accession (USDA PI 232214) selected for chromosome counting were tetraploids (2n = 28). The mean 2C nuclear DNA content for tetraploid B. ciliatus was 19.13± 0.07 pg as determined by flow cytometry which is significantly greater than the tetraploid DNA content of B. inermis Leyss. (11.74± 0.16 pg). C-banding procedures were used to identify individual mitotic chromosomes and to develop a karyotype for B. ciliatus. The genome of the tetraploid B. ciliatus consisted of 16 median chromosomes, eight submedian chromosomes, and four chromosomes with satellites which included one pair with a large satellite and one pair with a small satellite. The general pattern of the distribution of constitutive heterochromatin in B. ciliatus was quite different than the other bromegrasses that have been analyzed to date. Except for two pairs of chromosomes, all chromosomes in tetraploid B. ciliatus had telomeric bands on one or both arms. Some of the chromosomes with telomeric bands had centromeric bands that were located at one or both sides of the centromere and intercalary bands which were generally absent in the other bromegrass species. It was possible to identify all chromosomes of tetraploid B. ciliatus and to match the pairs of homologous chromosomes by using chromosome lengths, arm length ratios and C-banding patterns. The results of this study indicate that tetraploid B. ciliatus has different genomes than the European species evaluated to date in the section Pnigma.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Armstrong, K.C., 1981. The evolution of Bromus inermis and related species of Bromus section Pnigma. Bot Jahrb Syst 102: 427–443.
Armstrong, K.C., 1982. Hybrids between the tetraploid of Bromus inermis and B. pumpellianus. Can J Bot 60: 476–482.
Armstrong, K.C., 1983. The relationship between some Eurasian and American species of Bromus section Pnigma as determined by the karyotypes of some F1 hybrids. Can J Bot 61: 700–707.
Armstrong, K.C., 1984. Chromosome pairing affinities between old and new world species of Bromus.
Armstrong, K.C., 1991. Chromosome evolution in Bromus. In: T. Tsuchiya & T.K. Gupta (Eds.), Chromosome Engineering in Plants: Genetics, Breeding, Evolution, Part B, pp. 363–317. Elsevier, Amsterdam.
Barnett, F.L., 1955. A karyological survey of several Bromus species. Agron J 47(2), 88–91.
Benneth, M.D. & J.B. Smith, 1976. Nuclear DNA amounts in angiosperms. Phil Trans R Soc Lond B 274: 227–276.
Elliott, F.C., 1949. The cytology and fertility relationships of Bromus inermis and some of its relatives. Agron J 41: 298–303.
Falistocco, E., M. Falcinelli & F. Veronesi, 1995. Karyotype and C-banding pattern of mitotic chromosomes in alfalfa, Medicago sativa L. Plant Breed 114: 451–453.
Fominaya, A., C. Vega & E. Ferrer, 1988. Giemsa C-banded karyotypes of Avena species. Genome 30: 627–632.
Gill, B.S. & R.G. Sears, 1988. The current status of chromosome analysis in wheat. In: J.P. Gustafson & R. Appels (Eds.), Chromosome Structure and Function, pp. 299–321, Plenum, New York.
Gould, F.W. & R.B. Shaw, 1983. Grass Systematics, 2nd edn., Texas A&M Univ. Press, College Station, TX.
Joachimiak, A., A. Kula, E. Sliwinska & A. Sobieszczanska, 2001. C-banding and nuclear DNA amount in six Bromus species. Acta Biologica Cracoviensia Series Botanica 43: 105–115.
Kula, A., 1999. Cytogenetic studies in the cultivated form of Bromus carinatus (Poaceae). Fragmenta Floristica et Geo-botanica Suppl. 7: 101–106.
Naganowska, B., 1993. Cytophotometric analysis of DNA content in cell nuclei of five Bromus species of Genea section. Genetica Polonica 34: 215–221.
Ohri, D., 1998. Genome size variation and plant systematics. Ann Bot 82(Suppl. A.): 750–812.
Pillay, M. & K.W. Hilu, 1990. Chloroplast DNA variation in diploid and polyploid species of Bromus (Poaceae) subgenera Festucaria and Ceratochloa. Theor Appl Genet 80: 326–332.
Schertz, K.F. & R.P. Murphy, 1958. Fertility in relation to chromosome constitution and behavior in Bromus inermis Leyss. Agron J 372–376.
Sigurbjörnsson, B., A. Mochizuki & J.D. Truscott, 1958. Studies on the cytology of bromegrass, Bromus inermis L. Can J Plant Sci 38: 111–117.
Smith, P., 1970. Taxonomy and nomenclature of the brome-grasses (Bromus L.). {Notes R. Bot. Gard. Edinburg} 30: 361–375.
Stebbins, G.L., 1981. Chromosomes and evolution in the genus Bromus. {Bot. Jahrb. Syst. Pflanzengesch. Pflanzengeogr.} 102: 359–379.
Tayyar, R.I., A.J. Lukaszewski & J.G. Waines, 1994. Chromosome banding patterns in the annual species of Cicer. Genome 37: 656–663.
Tsvelev, N.N., 1976. Poaceae URSS Tribe 4 Bromeae Dum. USSR Academy of Science Press, Leningrad, pp. 530–608.
Tuna, M.K., K.S. Gill & K.P. Vogel, 2001a. Karyotype and C-banding patterns of mitotic chromosomes in diploid bromegrass (B. riparius Rehm.). Crop Sci 41: 831–834.
Tuna, M., K.P. Vogel, K. Arumuganathan & K.S. Gill, 2001b. DNA content and ploidy determination of bromegrass germplasm accessions by flow cytometry. Crop Sci 41: 1629–1634.
Tuna, M., K.P. Vogel, K. Arumuganathan & K.S. Gill, 2004. C-banding analyses of Bromus inermis genomes. Crop Sci 44: 31–37.
Wilton, A.C., 1965. Phylogenetic relationships of an unknown tetraploid Bromus, Section Bromopsis. {Canad J Bot} 43: 723–730.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tuna, M., Vogel, K.P. & Arumuganathan, K. Genome size and Giemsa C-banded karyotype of tetraploid Bromus ciliatus L.. Euphytica 146, 177–182 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-005-5341-6
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-005-5341-6