Giemsa staining and fluorescent chromosome banding in some Vitis L. species

Abstract

Giemsa staining technique and fluorescent chromosome banding with CMA₃ and DAPI were appliedto the mitotic chromosomes of Vitis champinii, V. cinerea, V. girdiana, V. labrusca, V. rotundifolia, V. rupestris and V. vinifera for the purpose of chromosome measurement and constitutive heterochromatin characterizationat the cytochemical level, respectively. Both fluorescent CMA and conventional Giemsa staining constituted a valuable tool for chromosome characterization. Karyomorphometric data obtained after Giemsa staining allowedfor an average ideogram and karyotype formulae based on chromosome length for the species. V. champinii and V. girdiana distinguished from the other five species by means of the total haploid chromosome length, by thelongest chromosome length and by the average chromosome length. The seven grape species have moderate chromosome asymmetry values and were classified on 2A Stebbins’ category. Positive CMA bands were seen in all species. V. girdiana distinguished from the other species solely by the presence of two CMA⁺ bands, while V. champinii, V. cinerea, V. labrusca, V. rotundifolia and V. rupestris had four bands. V. vinifera showed chromosome heteromorphism for CMA bands. No clearly visible DAPI⁺ band was seen in the species. According to the present observations, it seems that the evolutionary process of speciation involving North American and European Euvitis species studied, resulted in some discrete changes in chromosome measurements and also in heterochromatin basecomposition of at least one species. These data enlarge the chromosomal information of the genus Vitis and make possible further comparative studies into the Vitaceae family.

Key words:

• Fluorescent banding
• karyotype
• mitotic chromosomes
• Vitaceae
• Vitis