Karyological studies in Deschampsia antarctica Desv. (Poaceae)

SUSANA CARDONE, PATRICIA SAWATANI, PABLO RUSH, ANA MARıA GARCıA, LIDIA POGGIO AND GUSTAVO SCHRAUF

POLAR BIOLOGY

SPRINGER

Lugar: Alemania; Año: 2009 vol. 32 p. 427 - 433

0722-4060

Deschampsia antarctica Desv. (Poaceae),known as Antarctic hairgrass, is the only grass species andone of the two vascular plant species native to Antarcticaand it is a valuable source for gene discovery associatedwith freezing-tolerance. In this work the karyotype ofD. antarctica collected near Jubany Antarctic Base wasreported for the first time. This species presents a chromosomenumber of 2n = 2x = 26, with karyotypicformula 10m ? 6sm ? 8st ? 2t. The nucleolar organizerregion is located in the short arm in one of the submetacentricpairs forming a terminal satellite. Aneusomaty,a phenomenon already reported in the genus, was detectedduring this study. The cytogenetic information, togetherwith the recent phylogenetic data will be useful forbreeding strategies in agronomically valuable crops.