Karyotype studies on eight populations of Plantago albicans L. from Algeria

Figures & data

Figure 1. Distribution of populations of Plantago albicans L. in the province of Djelfa (central steppe of Algeria).

Table 1. Bioclimatic and floristic characteristics of the sampling stations.

Population	Locality	Floristic characteristics	Altitude (m)	M (°C)	m (°C)	P (mm)	Bioclimate
01	Birine	Steppe with Macrochloa tenacissima and Thymeleae microphylla	911	36	1.60	276	Upper arid with cool winter
02	Ain Oussera	Steppe with Artemisia herba alba and Peganum harmala	688	37	1.60	230	Lower arid with cool winter
03	Hassi Bahbah	Steppe with Stipagrostis pungens	898	34	1.40	260	Arid with cool winter
04	Zaafrane	Steppe with Lygeum spartun	907	36	1.50	250	Lower arid with cool winter
05	Mliliha	Steppe with Macrochloa tenacissima	1077	33	0.10	292	Semi-arid with cold winter
06	Djelfa	Matorral with Juniperus phoenicea and Macrochloa tenacissima	1250	33	0.15	337	Semi-arid with cold winter
07	Taadmit	Steppes with Peganum harmala and Atractylis serratuloides	1056	34.76	0.72	220	Lower arid with cool winter
08	Sidi Mekhlouf	Hammada scoparia and Astragalus armatus	895	38.20	2.40	161	Saharan

Abbreviations: M, average maximum temperature of the warmest month of the year in °C; m, average minimum temperature of the coldest month of the year in °C; P, yearly average precipitation in mm. Nomenclature of plant species is based on Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) III 2009.

Table 2. Cell number, absolute frequencies (AF) and relative frequencies (RF) of the different chromosome numbers found in populations of Plantago albicans L. in the Algerian central steppe.

Population	Cell number	2n	Absolute frequencies	Relative frequencies (%)
1	24	20	06	25.00
		18	03	12.50
		10	15	62.50
2	28	20	23	82.14
		18	05	17.85
3	58	20	35	60.34
		15	13	22.41
		10	10	17.24
4	56	20	20	35.71
		10	32	57.14
		09	04	07.14
5	50	20	22	44.00
		17	12	24.00
		10	16	32.00
6	44	20	25	56.81
		12	06	13.63
		10	13	29.54
7	30	20	14	47.00
		18	09	30.00
		14	07	23.33
8	44	10	30	68.18
		08	12	27.27
		20	02	04.54
		06	06	13.63

Figure 2. Microphotographs of somatic metaphases in Plantago albicans L. 2n = 10 (1 to 3) and 2n = 20 (4 to 6).

Table 3. Karyomorphological parameters of the diploid cytotype (2n = 2x = 10) of Plantago albicans L. in the Algerian central steppe.

Pair no.	Homologous chromosomes	S (μm)	L (μm)	C (μm)	R	CI	Type
1	01	3.45	3.62	7.07	1.06	48.79	m
	02
2	09	2.52	2.97	5.49	1.15	45.90	m
	10
3	03	2.40	2.70	5.10	1.14	47.05	m
	04
4	07	2.25	2.37	4.62	1.13	48.70	m
	08
5	05	1.62	1.87	3.50	1.10	46.28	m
	06

Abbreviations: S, short arm length; L, long arm length; C, chromosome length; R, arm ratio (long arm/short arm); CI, centromeric index coefficient; m, metacentric.

Table 4. Karyomorphological parameters of the tetraploid cytotype (2n = 4x = 20) of Plantago albicans L. in the Algerian central steppe.

Pair no.	Homologous chromosomes	S (μm)	L (μm)	C (μm)	R	CI	Type
1	01	2.05	3.90	5.95	1.75	34.45	Sm
	03
2	15	2.42	3.51	5.92	1.08	40.87	m
	16
3	09	2.81	3.05	5.86	1.32	47.95	m
	18
4	07	2.42	3.35	5.77	1.26	41.94	m
	17
5	04	2.40	3.35	5.75	1.05	41.73	m
	06
6	14	2.22	3.37	5.59	1.73	39.71	m
	19
7	08	2.12	3.42	5.54	1.76	38.26	m
	11
8	13	2.55	2.90	5.45	1.27	46.78	m
	20
9	05	1.60	2.70	4.30	1.33	37.20	Sm
	12
10	02	0.86	1.35	2.21	1.15	38.91	m
	10

Abbreviations: S, short arm length; L, long arm length; C, chromosome length; R, arm ratio (long arm/short arm); CI, centromeric index coefficient; m, metacentric; sm, sub-metacentric; st, sub-telocentric.

Figure 3. Karyotype (a) and idiogram (b) of the diploid cytotype of Plantago albicans L. (2n= 2x = 10).

Figure 4. Karyotype (a) and idiogram (b) of the tetraploid cytotype of Plantago albicans L. (2n = 4x = 20).

Table 5. Values of asymmetry indices of the diploid and tetraploid cytotypes of Plantago albicans L. from the Algerian central steppe.

Ploidy	ML	TL	Romero-Zarco (1986)		Paszko (2006)
			A1	A2	CVcl	CVci	AI
2x	3.50–7.07	5.15	0.10	0.23	23.97	04.11	0.99
4x	2.21–5.95	5.23	0.29	0.11	11.80	11.75	1.39

Abbreviations: ML, mean length of chromosomes; TL, total length of chromosomes.

Table 6. Chromosome counts reported for Plantago albicans L.^a

Chromosome counts	Country/region	References
30	Italy (Calabria, Sicily)	Peruzzi and Cesca 2002
30	Italy (Calabria, Sicily)	Brullo et al. 1985
30	Italy (Calabria, Sicily)	Bartolo et al. 1978
30	Italy (Calabria, Sicily)	Bartolo et al. 1980
20	Spain (Aragon)	Lorenzo-Andreu 1951
30, 12*,15*	Spain (Cadix, Granada, Huelva, Sevilla)	Gonzalez and Silvestre 1980
20	Spain	Fernandez Casas 1977
30	Greece (Naxos : Cyclades islands)	Runemark 1967
10	Morocco (Gorges of Oued Moulouya)	Humphries et al. 1978
30, 12*, 15*	Egypt	Badr 1980
30	Egypt (Alexandria)	Badr et al. 1987
30	Egypt (Burg Al Arab, Sinai: El-Arish)	Badr and El-Kholy 1987
30, 12, 24	Tunisia (South)	Fahmy 1955
10, 30	Tunisia (Gabes, El-kef)	Puech 1987
10, 20, 30	Tunisia (Gabes, Zougrata, Neffatia, Choucha, Bir Lahmar, Tozeur, Chebika: Kairouan)	Puech 1988
30, 10	Morocco (Taza, Targuits, Goulmima)	Puech 1992
10, 20, 30	Tunisia (Seliana, Maktar, Chehbania, El Fedje: Medenine, Gafsa)	Puech et al. 1998
10	Morocco (Beni-Snassen mounts)	Vogt and Oberprieler 2009
8, 10	Iran (Sarha: Hormozgan)	Mohsenzadeh et al. 2008

^a Compiled from available online databases and floras: IPCN, CCDB, IAPT/IOPB, CHROBASE, Flora Iberica, Flora Europaea. Regions and localities are reported into brackets.

*Gametophytic (n).

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