Estimation of Nuclear DNA Content in Some Aegilops Species: Best Analyzed Using Flow Cytometry

Solmaz Najafi; Mehmet Ulker; Erol Oral; Ruveyde Tuncturk; Murat Tuncturk; R Z Sayyed; Kahkashan Perveen; Peter Poczai; Andras Cseh

doi:10.3390/genes13111980

Estimation of Nuclear DNA Content in Some Aegilops Species: Best Analyzed Using Flow Cytometry

Genes (Basel). 2022 Oct 29;13(11):1980. doi: 10.3390/genes13111980.

Authors

Solmaz Najafi¹, Mehmet Ulker¹, Erol Oral¹, Ruveyde Tuncturk¹, Murat Tuncturk¹, R Z Sayyed², Kahkashan Perveen³, Peter Poczai⁴, Andras Cseh⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Field Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, Van Yuzuncu Yil University, Van 65090, Turkey.
² Department of Microbiology, PSGVP Mandal's S I Patil Arts, G B Patel Science and STKV Sangh Commerce College, Shahada 425409, India.
³ Department of Botany & Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 22452, Riyadh 11495, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland.
⁵ Agricultural Institute, Centre for Agricultural Research, ELKH, 2462 Martonvásár, Hungary.

Abstract

The genera Triticum and Aegilops have been considered as the main gene pool of wheat due to their features, such as tolerance of all types of abiotic and biotic stresses. This study was conducted to evaluate the cytogenetic analyses in 115 native and wild populations from eleven Aegilops species using their nuclear DNA quantification. Mean 2C nuclear DNA contents of different ploidy levels in the wild wheat of Turkey and Iran were measured using the flow cytometry technique. The obtained results showed that the mean nuclear DNA content in diploid species varied from 10.09 pg/2C (Ae. umbellulata) to 10.95 pg/2C (Ae. speltoides var. ligustica) in Turkey. In Iranian diploids, the mean nuclear DNA content varied from 10.20 pg/2C (Ae. taushii) to 11.56 pg/2C (Ae. speltoides var. ligustica). This index in the tetraploid species of Turkey varied from 18.09 pg/2C (Ae. cylindrica) to 21.65 pg/2C (Ae. triaristata), and in Iranian species, it was from 18.61 pg/2C (Ae. cylindrica) to 21.75 pg/2C (Ae. columnaris). On the other hand, in the hexaploid species of Turkey, this index varied from 31.59 pg/2C (Ae. crassa) to 31.81 pg/2C (Ae. cylindrica); in the Iranian species, it varied from 32.58 pg/2C (Ae. cylindrica) to 33.97 pg/2C (Ae. crassa). There was a significant difference in the DNA content of Turkey and Iran diploid as well as tetraploid species; however, in hexaploid species, the difference was not significant. It was concluded that the variation in intraspecific genome size was very low in diploid and tetraploid populations; this means that the low variation is not dependent on geographic and climatic parameters. On the other hand, the interspecific variation is significant at the diploid and tetraploid populations. It is generally very difficult to distinguish Aegilops species from each other in natural conditions; meanwhile, in this study, all species could be, easily, quickly and unambiguously, distinguished and separated using the FCM technique.

Keywords: Aegilops; genome size; nuclear DNA content; ploidy level.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aegilops* / genetics
DNA
Flow Cytometry
Genome, Plant
Iran
Polyploidy
Tetraploidy
Triticum / genetics

Substances

DNA

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the AGENT Project (H2020-SFS-2019-2) from the Research and Innovation Action of the European Union (Grant agreement ID: 862613) and TKP2021-NKTA-06 has been implemented with the support provided by the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund, financed under the TKP2021-NKTA funding scheme and Researchers Supporting Project Number (RSP-2021/358), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.