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Karyological relationships in Indian species of Drimia based on fluorescent chromosome banding and nuclear DNA amount

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Abstract

The genus Drimia (syn. Urginea), commonly called squill, represents a species complex, infrageneric delimitation being ill-defined due to morphological variability, population variation within species and polyploidy. In the present study, fluorescent chromosome banding and measurements of nuclear DNA content by flow cytometry were performed in five Indian species of Drimia: Drimia indica, Drimia polyantha, Drimia razii, Drimia wightii and Drimia coromandeliana to elucidate taxonomic relationship and obtain possible insights into the evolutionary processes within this group. All taxa analyzed exhibited similar karyomorphology with subtle differences accounted by nucleolar chromosomes. Nuclear DNA content ranged from 20.41 pg/2C in D. polyantha to 40.80 pg/2C in D. coromandeliana and was positively correlated with chromosome number (r = 0.67, P = 0.02) and total diploid chromatin length (r = 0.59, P = 0.06). Fluorescent chromosome banding revealed the presence of CMA+ve/DAPI−ve signals associated with nucleolar chromosomes presumably coincident with NOR in all species and unique CMA+ve signals in diploid populations of D. indica. Satellite polymorphism between homologous NOR-bearing chromosomes was observed which supports hybrid origin of the taxon. UPGMA dendrogram and scatter diagrams based on karyological parameters indicated a close relationship of D. indica, D. razii and D. polyantha while D. wightii and D. coromandeliana appeared distant. D. wightii appeared more close to D. indica than to all other species based on genome size and karyomorphology. As a whole, D. indica showed high intra-specific variability with populations exhibiting intergrading characters with other species. In conclusion, it is likely that hybridization followed by reproductive isolation of polymorphic forms arising by adaptation to different ecological niches resulted in species diversification of Drimia in India, probably from a common ancestor similar to D. indica.

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Acknowledgments

SN is grateful to the Department of Science and Technology, GOI for the award of INSPIRE Fellowship. We thank Prof. Jaroslav Doležel, Institute of Experimental Botany, Olomouc, Czech Republic, for providing the seeds for reference standard and Prof. SR Yadav and Dr. Manoj Lekhak, Department of Botany, Shivaji University, Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India, for providing and identifying the plant materials. We also thank CU-BD CoE for Nanobiotechnology, CRNN, University of Calcutta for instrument facilities. Financial assistance from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Govt. of India to SJ is gratefully acknowledged.

Conflict of interest

We declared here that we have no conflict of interest for the article to be published in the Protoplasma.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre of Advanced study, Department of Botany, University of Calcutta, 35 Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata, 700 019, West Bengal, India

    Sayantani Nath & Sumita Jha

  2. Department of Botany, Barasat Government College, Barasat, West Bengal, India

    Timir Baran Jha

  3. CU-BD Center of Excellence for Nanobiotechnology, CRNN, University of Calcutta, JD-2, Sector-III, Kolkata, 700098, West Bengal, India

    Sanjaya Kumar Mallick

  4. BD Biosciences, Kolkata, 700102, West Bengal, India

    Sanjaya Kumar Mallick

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  1. Sayantani Nath
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  4. Sumita Jha
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Correspondence to Sumita Jha.

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Nath, S., Jha, T.B., Mallick, S.K. et al. Karyological relationships in Indian species of Drimia based on fluorescent chromosome banding and nuclear DNA amount. Protoplasma 252, 283–299 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-014-0679-z

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