Meiotic Analysis of Selected Material of Sainfoin and its Progeny with Branched and Unbranched Peduncles

Authors: Ayşe Nihal GÖMÜRGEN

Abstract: Onobrychis armena Boiss. & Huet is one of the most important forage plants in Turkey. It grows naturally in Turkey's flora. In this study three types of sainfoin (selected [mother], unbranched [normal] and branched sainfoin) were used and the meiotic-chromosome behavior of these plants was observed . In May of 1992 and 1993 young inflorescens were introduced into a Farmer solution between 10.00 and 13.00, using the acetocarmin-squash technique in order to analyse their meiotic division. In the three types of research material the normal chromosome number was found to be 2n=28, whereas in all three types of sainfoin in metaphase I the chromosome number either increased or decreased, in addition to the fragment configurations which were observed. Some abnormal chromosome segregations and laggards were observed in anaphase I and II. Laggards and bridges were observed in telophase I and II. These observations demonstrated that the meiotic behavior of unbranched-peduncle sainfoin was normal. Therefore, these plants originated from the seeds of mother sainfoin which had normal 14 II chromosome configurations. However, in the branched plants and in the selected (mother) plants, the normal chromosome segregations and abnormalities were generally similar to each other. For this reason, it is possible to say that these branched-peduncle progenies were prouced from seeds which had unbalanced chromosome configurations. It can be seen from this that there is mutation in some of the pollen mother cells of selected sainfoin and this mutation was seen in chromosome abnormalities, whereas these abnormalities were constant during the two years of this study . Some microphotographs of the meiotic stages have been included in this paper.

Keywords: Onobrychis, meiotic analysis