Cytogenetic studies and DNA content in Brasiliopuntia schulzii (Cactaceae

Abstract

Chromosome number, karyotype, banding patterns, location of ribosomal genes and nuclear DNA content were determined in two populations of Brasiliopuntia schulzii (Cactaceae, subfam. Opuntioideae). The species resulted diploid (2n = 22) and presented a karyotype formula of 10m + 1 sm. The chromosomal banding CMA/DAPI revealed the presence of one chromosome pair with CMA+/DAPI- band associated to NORs. With FISH technique we observed that 18-5.8-26S loci were consistent with CMA+/DAPI-/NORs blocks. The signal for the 5S gene is located at the fourth pair m in a telomeric region. In both populations the DNA content analysis revealed a mixture of nuclei with three peaks of 2C, 4C and 8C. This fact suggests a process of endopolyploidy in the species. The results reported in this paper, combined with morphological characteristics, indicate that this genus has basal characters, which coincides with phylogenetic analyses of the subfamily.