The Chromosomes of Coriandrum sativum L.

LIDIA POGGIO, C.A. NARANJO, A. DE LA VEGA Y NORA FRAYSSINET

CYTOLOGIA

UNIV TOKYO CYTOLOGIA

Año: 1994 vol. 59 p. 17 - 23

0011-4545

Coriandrum sativum L. (coriander), belonging to the family Umbelliferae, is an aromatic species from Southern Europe, Asia Minor and Caucasus. Essential oils extracted from its fruits are used in the manufacture of liquors, beer and perfumes. They also have stimulating and antispasmodic properties. The coriander now widely cultivated in Argentina appeared in 1939, and the total amount of the seeds sown belongs to a single population (Lafourcade et al. 1985) which seems to come from the Soviet Union (Elechosa, personal communication). This species has 22 chromosomes (Baijal and Kaul 1973, Hore 1977, Subramanian 1986, Das and Mallick 1989). Baijal and Kaul (1973) classify the 11 chromosome pairs into 7 types (I—VII), 3 of which have satellites. Hore (1977) described a karyotype comprising 5 chromosome types (A, B, C, D and F) according to centromere position and presence of 1 to 3 secondary constrictions. Subramanian (1986) described 4 chromosome types (C, D, H and K), according to their length, centromeric position and existence of secondary constrictions. Finally, Das and Mallick (1989) described a new karyotype with 7 chromosome types, 4 of which possessed one or two secondary constrictions. The lack of agreement in the karyotype description among these authors is due to differences in the nomenclature used for chromosome morphology and to different criteria, used to determine the position of primary and secondary constrictions. With the aim of clarifying this controversial issue, the karyotypes, the maximum number of nucleoli and chromosome pairing of populations from Argentina. Hungary and Libya and of cultivars from Budakalasie (Hungary) and Hrubicki (Poland) are studied in this report. The amount and position of constitutive heterochromatin in four populations were also investigated through C-banding.