© 2019 The Japan Mendel Society Cytologia 84(3): 247–250

New Chromosome Numbers in , subgenera Podospermum and Pseuodopodospermum (, )

Elham Hatami, Firouzeh Bordbar* and Mansour Mirtadzadini

Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran

Received February 5, 2019; accepted May 7, 2019

Summary Somatic chromosome numbers of seven Scorzonera L. species collected from different localities in Iran were counted. Except for S. mucida with 2n=28, the other species exhibited a somatic number of 2n=14. The chromosome numbers support the basic number (x=7) of Scorzonera. The chromosome numbers in S. tuni- cata, S. kandavanica, S. persepolitana, S. mucida, and S. raddeana are reported for the first time. Chromosome numbers in S. luristanica and S. songorica are different from those of the previous reports.

Key words Asteraceae, Chromosome number, Iran, Scorzonera.

The genus Scorzonera L. (Asteraceae, Cichorieae, cation of Scorzonera (Rechinger 1977). Scorzonerinae), with approximately 175 species belong- The ripe achenes were obtained from that were ing to the subtribe Scorzonerinae Dumort. of the tribe conserved and deposited in the herbarium of Shahid Cichorieae is widely spread among the arid regions of Bahonar University of Kerman (MIR). Mitotic chromo- Eurasia and North Africa (Bremer 1994, Mabberley some preparations were obtained from the root tips of 2008, Norouzi et al. 2016). The genus is represented by germinating seeds on a wet filter paper in Petri dishes 56 species in Iran (Rechinger 1977, Safavi et al. 2013, at room temperature. Root tips of 1–2 cm were cut off Safavi 2016), of which 20 species are endemic for the and pretreated with 0.2% α-monobromonaphthalene at flora of Iran. Therefore, Iran is an important center of 4°C for 8 h, then they were fixed in a fresh Carnoy fixa- diversity for Scorzonera. Nazarova (1997) conducted the tive (3 : 1, ethanol : glacial acetic acid) for 24 h and stored most comprehensive cytological study on Scorzonera at 4°C until use. The root tips were washed in distilled and reported the karyotype analysis of 22 species as well water to remove the fixative, hydrolyzed in 1 M HCl for as reviewed previous chromosome numbers mentioned 5–7 min at 60°C and stained in aceto-iron haematoxy- in Scorzonera. Considering recent papers, chromosome lin for 24 h at 30°C according to Bordbar et al. (2017). numbers have been determined for 14 Iranian species Squashing was gently carried out in a drop of 45% acetic (Safavi 1999, Ghasemi et al. 2015, Bordbar et al. 2019). acid on a slide glass. Using an Olympus BH-2 micro- Therefore, in cytogenetic terms, the species belonging scope equipped with a digital camera, the best mitotic to the Scorzonera have been insufficiently studied. The metaphases of at least five cells in each were pho- present study aims to expand chromosomal information, tographed. which may play a positive role in resolving the taxonom- ical problems of this genus. Results and discussion

Materials and methods Figure 1 presents Mitotic-metaphase chromosome plates of the examined species. The results are presented The cytological investigations were based on the least below based on the subgeneric position of species ac- of five metaphase cells of the 1–5 individual(s) from lo- cording to Rechinger (1977). calities in Iran, including the following taxa: Scorzonera mucida Rech. f. Aell. & Esfand., S. tunicata Rech. f. & Subgen. Pseuodopodospermum (Lipsch. & Krasch.) Lipsch. Koeie, S. raddeana C. Winkl., S. kandavanica Reh. f., S. mucida is endemic to Iran and widely distributed S. luristanica Reh. f., S. songorica (Kar. & Kir.) Lipsch. all over the country (Rechinger 1977). The chromosome &Vassilcz and S. persepolitana Boiss. Table 1 presents number of this species was determined to be 2n=28 (Fig. their localities. We followed the broadly defined classifi- 1A). This is the first chromosome count for this taxon. S. tunicata is endemic to the north-east of Iran, Af- * Corresponding author, e-mail: [email protected] ghanistan, and Pakistan. This species possessed 2n=14 DOI: 10.1508/cytologia.84.247 chromosomes (Fig. 1B). The chromosome number of 248 E. Hatami et al. Cytologia 84(3)

Table 1. Name of the plant species, locality information.

Taxon Locality information, Altitude, Longitude-latitude, and Voucher no.

Subgen. Pseuodopodospermum (Lipsch. & Krasch.) Lipsch. S. mucida Rech. f. Aell. & Esfand. Iran, SE, NE Kerman, Deh Bala village, 1978 m, N30°19′18″, E57°12′51.4″, 31.V.2015, Bordbar and Makki 3000 (MIR) S. tunicata Rech. f. & Koeie Iran, NE, Khorassan, 32 km from Birjand to Qa’en, 1991 m, N33°08′76.7″, E59°17′15.6″, 07.V.2015, Mirtadzadini 2158 (MIR) S. raddeana C. Winkl. Iran: S, Fars, the pass between Estahban and Niriz (old road), 1918 m, N29°08′39.8″, E54°07′27.2″, 03.V.2016, Mirtadzadini, Attar and Ra’i 2157 (MIR)

Subgen. Podospermum (DC) Lipsch. S. kandavanica Reh. f. Iran: N, 6 km from Lowshan to Jirandeh, 1007 m, N36°40′41.4″, E49°34′10.0″, 20.V.2016, Mirtadzadini 2212 (MIR) S. luristanica Reh. f. Iran: W, Kermanshah, between Quriqala and Paweh, 1803 m, N34° 57′ 28.9″, E46°26′46.5″, 26.V.2016, Mirtadzadini, Attar and Ra’I, 2213 (MIR) S. songorica (Kar. &Kir.) Lipsch. & Vassilcz Iran: S, Kerman, on the road of Golbaf, near Abolfazl Mosque, 14.IV.2016, Mirtadzadini 2247 (MIR) S. persepolitana Boiss. Iran: North, 7 km from Zanjan to Bijar, 1669 m, N36°38′37.8″, E48°26′22.7″, 22.V.2016, Mirtadzadini 2215 (MIR)

Fig. 1. Metaphase chromosomes of Scorzonera. A) S. mucida, B) S. tunicata, C) S. raddeana, D) S. kandavanica, E) S. luristanica, F) S. songorica, G) S. persepolitana. Scale bar=10 µm.

this taxon is presented for the first time. limited area in the north of Iran. Our record of 2n=14 S. raddeana is distributed in Iran, Afghanistan, and (Fig. 1D) for this taxon is presented here for the first Turkmenistan (Kopet Dagh region). The somatic chro- time. mosome number is 2n=14 (Fig. 1C). This is the first S. luristanica is endemic to Iran and Iraq. It possessed chromosome count for this species. 2n=14 chromosomes (Fig. 1E). S. songorica is distributed in Central Asia, Afghani- Subgen. Podospermum (DC) Lipsch. stan, and Iran. The chromosome number in this species S. kandavanica is endemic to Iran and is found in a showed 2n=14 (Fig. 1F). 2019 Chromosome Numbers in Iranian Species of Scorzonera 249

Table 2. Previous and the present reported chromosome numbers of Scorzonera, subgenera Podospermum and Psuodopodospermum

Taxon 2n Source of reference

Subgen. Psuodopodospermum S. leptophylla (DC.) Krasch. & Lipsch. 14 Nazarova (1980) S. mucida 28 This study S. phaeopappa (Boiss.) Boiss. 14 Safavi (1999) S. tunicata 14 This study S. turkeviczii Krasch. & Lipsch. 14, 28 Nazarova (1980, 1997) S. raddeana 14 This study

Subgen. Podospermum S. armeniaca (Boiss. & Huet.) Boiss. 14 Nazarova (1975, 1980, 1997), Safavi (1999) S. cana (C. Meyer) O. Hoffm. 14 Nazarova (1980), Kuzmanov and Georgieva (1983), Vitek et al. (1992), Dobea et al. (1997), Dimitrova (1999) 28 Papanicolaou (1984) S. kandavanica 14 This study S. laciniata L. 14 Nazarova (1975, 1980), Safavi (1999), Vogt and Aparicio (1999) S. luristanica 12 Safavi (1999) 14 This study S. meyeri (C. Koch) Lipsch. 14 Nazarova (1975, 1980) S. persepolitana 14 This study S. songarica Lipsch. & Vass. 14 Nazarova (1990) S. songorica 12 Safavi (1999) 14 This study

S. persepolitana is endemic to Iran and distributed in Acknowledgements many parts of Iran. 2n=14 is the first report for this spe- cies (Fig. 1G). We would like to thank the Iran National Science The current study presents the chromosome numbers Foundation (INSF) for their support. for seven Iranian species of Scorzonera. Five of the counts are new to science and two are in disagreement References with the previous reports (Table 2). The basic chromo- some numbers reported in Scorzonera are x=6 and Bordbar, F., Baqeri, M. and Mirtadzadini, M. 2017. New chromosome x=7 (Nazarova 1997, Safavi 1999, Winfield et al. 2006, counts in Cousinia (Asteraceae) from flora of Iran. Cytologia 82: 485–488. Ghasemi et al. 2015). The basic number of x=10 report- Bordbar, F., Makki, P. and Alifarsangi, F. 2019. Karyotype investiga- ed in S. intricata is a rare number (Bordbar et al. 2019). tions in Iranian Scorzonera tortuosissima and S. intricata, As- It seems this species is an autotriploid species with the teraceae. Cytologia 84: 69–72. chromosome number of 2n=3x=21, and the chromo- Bremer, K. 1994. Asteraceae: Cladistics and Classification. Timbers some number of 2n=20 is due to an aneuploidy event Press, Portland. Dimitrova, D. 1999. Mediterranean chromosome number reports 9 which is normal in triploid species. In this study, the ba- (1055–1057). Flora Mediterranea 9: 343–346. sic chromosome number of seven species supports x=7. Dobea, C., Hahn, B. and Morawetz, W. 1997. Chromosome numbers Among the Iranian Scorzonera species, the chromosome of the vascular plants̶Flora of Austria. Linzer Biol. Beitr. 29: numbers of S. luristanica and S. songorica were reported 5–43. as 2n=12 (Safavi 1999). In our study, these species had Ghasemi, F. S., Jalili, A. and Vaghefi, S. S. M. 2015. Chromosome a chromosome number of 2n=14, which might suggest report of three species of flora of Iran. Iran. J. Bot. 21: 165–168. Kuzmanov, B. and Georgieva, S. 1983. Reports. In: Löve, À. (ed.). intraspecific variation in chromosome number. IOPB chromosome number reports LXXXI. Taxon 32: 665. Therefore, by comparing our study with the previous Lipschitz, S. J. 1964. Scorzonera. In: Shishin, B. K. (ed.). Flora of the studies with following the subgeneric classification used USSR Vol. 29. Academy of Science of the USSR, Moscow. pp. in the monographic study of the genus (Lipschitz 1964), 111–115. Flora Iranica (Rechinger 1977), and flora of Iran (Safavi Mabberley, D. J. 2008. Mabberley’s Plant-book: A portable dictionary of plants, their classifications, and uses. Cambridge University et al. 2013), we conclude that subgen. Podospermum Press, Cambridge. and Pseuodopdospermum have somatic chromosome Nazarova, E. A. 1975. Chromosome numbers of some species of Ar- numbers of 2n=14 and 2n=28 and the basic chromo- menian flora. Biol. J. Armen. 28: 95–97. some number of x=7. However, the chromosome number Nazarova, E. A. 1980. Cytotaxonomic study of Scorzonera L. Biol. J. variation in Scorzonera is low (mostly 2n=14), more Armen. 33: 545–551. Nazarova, E. A. 1990. Genus Scorzonera. In: Takhtajan, A. (ed.). extensive karyologic and genomic data are required to Chromosome Numbers of Flowering Plants of Flora USSR, Ac- solve the chromosome evolution and, the taxonomic and eraceae–Menyanthaceae. Nauka, St. Petersburg. pp. 194–206. (in phylogenetic relationships among Scorzonera species. Russian). 250 E. Hatami et al. Cytologia 84(3)

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