seyed mohsen hesamzadeh hejazi

A karyological study of five taxa (15 populations) of the genus Satureja L. from different geographic origins is presented. The haploid levels were different among species (n= 12 and 15). The work deals with chromosome number and morphometry. We found two of the usual basic chromosome numbers in this study for satureja species, x= 12 and x= 15. All populations were diploid and were located in 1B or 2B Stebbins classes. The karyotypic results showed the diversity among the species as mostly displayed median region (m) and submedian region (sm) and the chromosome lengths were determined between 0.60 µm in Satureja sahendica Bornm. (1041) to 2.27 µm in S. macrantha C.A.Mey. (3). Detailed karyotype analysis allows us to group the different populations and determine the relationships among them. It also pointed out the possibility of inter and intra-species cross to improve plants.

Dracocephalum kotschyi Boiss. belongs to the family Lamiaceae, a perennial herbaceous medicinal plant that is native to Iran and is considered an endangered species. In-vitro plantlets (seven populations) were raised in MS medium supplemented with 0.1 mg/l BAP and 0.01 mg/l NAA and the rooted plantlets were acclimatized successfully under greenhouse conditions. In- vivo plants (eight populations) were propagated under greenhouse condition. The essential oils were isolated by hydro distillation and identification of chemical compounds was done by a combination of capillary GC and GC-MS instruments. Twenty-five and forty compounds were identified in the different populations of in-vitro plantlet and in-vivo plant constituting 85.8%-99.68% and 85.1%-95.06% of essential oils, respectively. The major components of in-vitro plantlet on different populations were Verbenone (2.5%-82.47%), Geranyl acetate (28.35%-62.07%), Methyl geranate (0.98%-79.06%), Neral (0.64%-3.13%), Geranial (4.93%-14.39%), Limonene (0.37%-10.36%) and E-Anethole (7.62%-20.71%). The composition of essential oil from greenhouse plant populations were dominated by Neral (11.24%-74.80%), Limonene (0.17%-25.26%), Geraniol (0.54%-40.81%), Geranial (0.04%-9.15%), Methyl geranate (0.16%-28.48%), E-Anethole (0 %-0.1%) and Verbenone (0.39%-23.96%). The highest values of Neral, Limonene and Geraniol percentage were obtained from greenhouse conditions. In contrast, the maximum values of Verbenone, Geranyl acetate, Methyl geranate, Geranial, and E-Anethole were observed in the essential oils of in-vitro plantlets. This study demonstrated difference of chemical composition between in-vitro plantlets and greenhouse plants of different populations on D. kotschyi species. Also, new chemotypes of D. kotschyi has been introduced for further research.

The present study was conducted to investigate genetic diversity between and within of six populations with different individual numbers of cultivated and non-cultivated provenances of  Moringa peregrina (Forssk.) Fiori and Moringa oleifera Lam. using RAPD, ISSR and various combinations of RAPD and ISSR primers in one multiplex PCR (R-ISSR). 10 primers that produced clear and reproducible fragments after screening of 30 primers were selected for further analysis. A set of 10 primers generated 96 bands ranging in size from 150 to 1600 bp, corresponding to an average of 16 bands per primer and out of which 100 % were polymorphic among 26 individuals.  The PIC values ranged from 0.16 to 0.31 and MI values ranged from 2.16 to 4.65 per primer. The primer R-ISSR (H876+A17) had the highest PIC (0.31) and MI (4.65) values. A maximum and minimum genetic similarity values were observed between populations (I and V) in M. oleifera (0.98) and populations (III and IV) in M. peregrina (0.52) respectively. The Gst value was 0.7, indicating that 61% of the genetic diversity resided within the populations. Clustering analysis using average algorithm based on Nei's unbiased genetic distance, classified the Moringa Adans. populations into five major groups. The PCOA data confirmed the results of clustering. The results of this study revealed that R-ISSR markers could be efficiently used for genetic differentiation of the Moringa individuals. The primers used in this article are useful to detection of a high level of polymorphism and it can be used to guide future breeding studies and management of Moringa genus.

Karyological studies of seven populations of Buxus hyrcana Pojark. from different habitats are presented. We found one usual basic chromosome number in this species x=14. All populations were diploid (2n = 2x = 28). The results of kryotypic analysis made it possible to categorize different populations of a species and make a logical comparison among them.

In botanical and taxonomical science embryological studies are specially important. In this research, developmental stages of pollen grains and ovules were studied in Salvia verticillata L of Lamiaceae family.The flower and buds in different developmental stages were removed, fixed in FAA, stored in70% ethanol, embedded in paraffin and sliced with a microtome. Staining was done with Hematoxilin and Eosin. The prepared slides from different developmental stages were studied carefully using a light microscope. On the basis of this research results, ovule was anatropous, bitegumic and tenuinucellate. The development of the embryo sac followed the mono-sporic, polygonum type. After the meiosis, megaspore tetrads had linear arrangement. First, embryo sac was very small, so that its nuclei were compressed linearly but in maturation progress, embryo sac sustained longitude growth considerably. The anther was bisporangia. In S. verticillata, the tapetum was plasmodial and secretory with tetra- nucleate and bi-nucleate cells. In species microspore tetrads were observed with tetrahedral and tetragonal arrangement.

Cercis L. belongs to Caesalpinaceae family. Two species of the genus grow in Iran. Four populations of two Cercis species namely C. siliquastrum (one population) and C. griffithii (three populations) were selected based on their morphological characteristics to investigate their karyotypes. The results confirm no differences among the different species for the number of chromosomal stocks (x=7). All species were diploid with 2n=2x=14.

To study karyological and relationship between 16 populations of genus Agropyron، namely Agropyron deserterum، A. tauri، A. repens، A. pectiniforme، and A. imbricatum (3 populations for each species،exceptfor A. imbricatum)، root meristem cells were used. Four suitable metaphase plates for each population were selected and photographed. Results showed، the basic chromosome number in all of the populations was x=7 and ploidy levels were 2x، 4x، and 6x. Results of analysis of variance revealed significant differences between the populations based on all karyotypic characteristics (P<%1) except for total form percentage (P<%5). This indicated occurrences of quantitative changes in chromosome size of the studied populations. Average size of the chromosome in the studied populations was 10. 518 micrometer. Using principal components analysis (PCA)، the first three independent components accounted about %93. 96 of total variation. The first component indicated that length of total chromosome، length of long arm، arm ratio، centromeric index، total form percentage، and intra chromosomal asymmetry index were important characters for classification of the populations with about 57% of total variation. By cutting dendrogram resulted from cluster analysis (Ward) in metric distance 2. 584، the populations were classified into 5 groups. The lowest metric distance was obtained between two populations، A. deserterum (15357)، and A. imbricatum (11389) and the highest metric distance was obtained between A. deserterum (629) and A. taur (327)، that indicates the least affinity between them. By a diagram of the genotypes dispersion، based on the two first components، the populations were grouped into 5 separated classes، which agreed to the results of cluster analysis.