NATURAL SCIENCES

Journal of fundamental
and
applied researches

À karyological study of representatives of the genusAstragalus L. from Baer’s hills in the Astrakhan Region

2012. ¹4, pp. 58-66

Kozak Margarita F. - Sc.D. (Biology), Professor, Astrakhan State University, 1 Shaumyan Sq., Astrakhan, 414000, Russian Federation, mkozak@yandex.ru

Skvortsova Irina A. - post-graduate student, Astrakhan State University, 1 Shaumyan Sq., Astrakhan, 414000, Russian Federation, ireneskv@rambler.ru

The article relates that the Astragalus L genus is a leader in the spectrum of 13 leading genera (32 species), with its representatives highly adapted to the arid climate of the Astrakhan region. The genus prevails in Russian territory, while its representatives are almost unknown in the cytogenetic plan. In the course of the discussion, the paper gives the results of a karyological study of A. virgatus Pall. and A. longipetalus Chater, which are presently growing in the west ilmen hills area of the Astrakhan region. Part of the assessment focused on karyomorphological observations made on mitotic metaphase cells of root-tips from seeds germinated on moist filter paper in Petri dishes at 25 °C. It found that seeds excised from actively growing root tips 0.7–1.0 cm long germinated after preprocessing the colchicine, then found in Carnoy’s fixative (3:1) during the period from 12 to 13 o’clock in the afternoon. Subsequently, the materials were transferred to 80% ethanol and painted in test tubes using acetocarmine. The best metaphase plates were photographed with a digital cameras (a ’Mercury Cyber Pix E-560 Ì’, or ’NIKON Coolpix 5900’) mounted on an ’MICMED-2’ microscope. The study adds that the chromosomes were karyotyped by means of a computer system using ’VIDEOTEST-KARIO 3.1.’ The chromosomes’ description was made according to the terminology offered by Agapova N. D., Grif V. G. (1982). A. longipetalus Chater belongs to subgenus Astragalus, the sections Caprini DC., and A. varius S. G. Gmel. – subgenus Cercidothrix Bunge, section Dissitiflori DC. The paper also has established the number of chromosomes for A. virgatus Pall. (2n=32) and A. longipetalus Chater (2n=16). In conclusion, the blueprint has presented a formula based on research into a karyotype ideogram of chromosomes

Key words: Astragalus virgatus Pall.,Astragalus longipetalus Chater,karyotype,ideogram of chromosomes