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Cytogenetic Studies of Different Miscanthus Species with Potential for Agricultural Use
Author(s) -
Lafferty J.,
Lelley T.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
plant breeding
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.583
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1439-0523
pISSN - 0179-9541
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0523.1994.tb00730.x
Subject(s) - biology , miscanthus sinensis , ploidy , meiosis , polyploid , chromosome , botany , cultivar , meiosis ii , genetics , miscanthus , gene , microbiology and biotechnology , bioenergy , biofuel
Four morphologically different clones of Miscanthus sinensis ‘Giganteus’, presently grown in Austria, one ornamental, M. sinensis , and two cultivars of M. sacchariflorus , were studied to determine their chromosome number, chromosome morphology and meiotic behaviour. The clones of M. sinensis ‘Giganteus’ uniformly showed a somatic chromosome number of 57. The ornamental M. sinensis , and one M. sacchariflorus cultivar had 38 and the second M. sacchariflorus genotype had 76 chromosomes. While the ornamental M. sinensis exhibited a regular meiosis with predominantly ring bivalents, M. sinensis ‘Giganteus’ displayed a highly irregular meiosis with stickiness, frequent occurrence of trivalents and a large number of laggards in both the first and second anaphases. The presence of two satellited chromosomes suggests an allotriploid genome constitution; the trivalents indicate the involvement of closely related species in the amphiploid. Triploidy of the plants is supposed to be the major cause of their sterility. Suggestions are made for further cytogenetic studies including genome analysis and an attempt to resynthesize M. sinensis ‘Giganteus’ to provide an insight into the genetic architecture of the plant and to generate new genetic variations for breeding purposes.