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Are cytological parameters of maize landraces (Zea mays ssp. mays) adapted along an altitudinal cline?

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Abstract

The Northwestern Argentina (NWA) highland region is one of the southernmost areas of native maize cultivation. We studied variations of different cytological parameters, such as DNA contents, presence/absence of B chromosomes (Bs), and number and sequence composition of heterochromatic knobs in ten accessions of four maize landraces growing along a broad altitudinal cline in NWA. The aim of this work was to assess variations in cytological parameters and their relationship with the crop altitude of cultivation, in an adaptive context. The A-DNA content of the A chromosome complements showed 40% of difference between the lowest (4.5 pg) and the highest (6.3 pg) 2C value. This variation could be attributed to differences in number and size of heterochromatic knobs. Fluorescent in situ hybridization studies revealed the sequence composition of each knob, with a higher proportion of knobs composed of 180-bp repeats rather than TR-1 repeats, in all accessions. We also found numerical polymorphisms and the highest frequency of Bs reported in maize to this date. These results lead us to propose that the frequencies and doses of Bs are influenced by the landrace genotypical make-up. The Bs might be maintained in higher frequencies in those accessions having lower heterochromatin content, so as to preserve an optimal nucleotype. Furthermore, selective forces acting along the altitudinal gradient might be modulating the cytological parameters studied, as suggested by the significant correlations found among them.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank to the loving memory Ing. Agr. Julián Cámara-Hernández (Laboratorio Vavilov, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires) for his dedication, invaluable assistance, and taxonomic determination of all the materials used; to Dr. Verónica Lia (Laboratorio de Biotecnología, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, Argentina) for sharing seeds from VAV 6482 of Orgullo Cuarentón landrace; to Dr. Jaroslav Doležel (Laboratory of Molecular Cytogenetics and Cytometry, Institute of Experimental Botany, Czech Republic) for sharing Pisum sativum cv. Citrad seeds; to Dr. Gerardo Cueto (Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires) for his helpful advice with the statistical analyses; to Lic. Lucía Babino (IEGEBA, UBA-CONICET) for her support with the graphics, and to Mr. Diego Fink for his technical assistance improving the cytological figures. This research was funded by grants from the University of Buenos Aires (UBACYT 20020130100694BA), and the National Council of Scientific Research (CONICET-PIP 11220120100107CO). The authors are fellows of CONICET.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Citogenética y Evolución (LaCyE), Departamento de Ecología, Genética y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    María Florencia Fourastié, Alexandra Marina Gottlieb, Lidia Poggio & Graciela Esther González

  2. Instituto de Ecología, Genética y Evolución de Buenos Aires (IEGEBA), CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    María Florencia Fourastié, Alexandra Marina Gottlieb, Lidia Poggio & Graciela Esther González

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  1. María Florencia Fourastié
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  2. Alexandra Marina Gottlieb
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  3. Lidia Poggio
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  4. Graciela Esther González
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Correspondence to Graciela Esther González.

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Fourastié, M.F., Gottlieb, A.M., Poggio, L. et al. Are cytological parameters of maize landraces (Zea mays ssp. mays) adapted along an altitudinal cline?. J Plant Res 131, 285–296 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-017-0996-3

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