Adil GÜNER, Vehbi ESER - optima

CYTOGENETIC CHARACTERISATION OF TWO CHOUARDIA
SPECIES: Ch. lakusicii (Šili�) Speta and Ch. litardierei (Breistr.) Speta
Sonja SILJAK-YAKOVLEV 1 , Odile ROBIN 1 , Drazena PAPEŠ 2 , �edomil ŠILI� 3
1 Ecologie, Evolution et Systématique, UMR CNRS 8079, Departement "Biodiversité, Systématique et
Evolution",Université Paris-Sud, Bat. 360, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France
sonia.yakovlev@u-psud.fr odile.robin@u-psud.fr
2 Department of Molecular Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Zagreb, Horvatovac 102a, Zagreb,
Croatia, dpapes@biol.pmf.hr
3 Patriotske lige 22/11, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Šili� (1990, 1991) described the new species Scilla lakusicii Šili� which was very close to
Scilla litardierei Breistr. These two species are endemic of west Balkan region. Franz Speta
(1998) grouped these two species in particular genus Chouardia. In this study we first
determined the chromosome number of 2n=26 for both species, Chauordia lakusicii (Šili�)
Speta and Ch. litardierei Speta. Besides, the classical and molecular techniques were used:
Feulgen, Giemsa C-banding, fluorochrome banding (DAPI and chromomycin CMA),
fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and genome size assessment by flow cytometry. The
karyogram is of bimodal type with one long pair, two middle-sized and 10 small chromosome
pairs. Analysis of karyotype data show that two species could be the diploids with 2n=2x=26
or the paleopolyploids which have been affected by diploidisation and processes of disploidy.
The particular cytogenetic characteristics as basic chromosome number x=13, specific
morphology and size of chromosomes, heterochromatin pattern, rRNA genes organization and
genome size justified the existence of two species, their exclusion from Scilla and inclusion in
Chouardia genus.
Keywords: Chouardia, genome size, heterochromatin, karyotype, ribosomal genes mapping,
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