Cytology of Rheum, a vulnerable medicinal plant from Kashmir Himalaya

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Rheum, common name rhubarb is a source of number of chemical compounds like emodin, rutin and rhein. Plants are used as drugs, laxative and purgative. The two species of this genus viz R.emodi and R.webbianum grow wild in the Kashmir Himalaya. Keeping the threat status and the economic importance of these two species into consideration, an attempt was made to study their detailed meiotic course. Meiotic analysis revealed n=11 (2x) and n=22 (4x) as the chromosome numbers in R.emodi and R.webbianumi respectively. Cytological study for R.webbianum has been carried out for the fi rst time from the study area also it is the fi rst report of structural heterozygosity in R. emodi.

Meiotic and Ethnobotanical Studies on <i>Rheum</i> Species from Kashmir Himalaya

“…1a, b) (Table 1), which is in accordance with the previous reports by various workers from India (Gohil andRather 1986, Saggoo andFarooq 2011). Further, the meiotic course was abnormal with the presence of chromatin transfer at M-I (Fig.…”

“…1f). Previously, the tetraploid cytotype (2n= 44) of the species has also been reported by Gohil and Rather (1986), and Saggoo and Farooq (2011) from Kashmir Himalaya (Table 1), whereas, 2n= 22 adds a new diploid cytotype for the first time on a worldwide basis and reports the presence of intraspecific polyploidy. The detailed meiotic course of the diploid cytotype shows various abnormalities as unoriented bivalents at M-I (Fig.…”

Studies on Male Meiosis and Microsporogenesis in <i>Rumex dentatus</i> L., an Important Medicinal Plant of North Western Himalaya

“…Such genetic differences have earlier been reported in different plant species by Baptista-Giacomelli et al (2000). According to Fadaei et al (2010), Saggoo and Farooq (2011), Kumar et al (2012) and Jeelani et al (2012Jeelani et al ( , 2014Jeelani et al ( , 2015, and cytomixis results in the production of unreduced gametes in several angiosperms or leads to the production of aneuploid plants. The formation of unreduced gametes is of evolutionary significance in a way that it can lead to the production of plants with higher ploidy level through polyploidization (Villeux 1985).…”

Spontaneous Occurrence of Structural Heterozygosity in ‘Buckwheat’ (<i>Fagopyrum acutatum</i>) from the Parvati Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India

“…Consequently, 50% non-viable gametes are produced toward pollen side and 50% toward ovule side. Such a phenomenon of structural heteozygosity leading to some sterility of pollen grains has been reported in a number of cases namely, Chrysanthemum coronarium (Gill and Gupta 1981), C. zawadskii (Kim et al 2008), Lathyrus boissieri (Ghaffari et al 2009), Artemisia parviflora , Euphorbia pilosa (Saggoo and Farooq 2011), Astragalus chlorostachys (Rana et al 2012), Tradescantia spathacea (Koul et al 2013), Saxifraga diversifolia (Kumar and Singhal 2013), Achillea millefolium (Singhal et al 2014) and Anemone rivularis (Kumar et al 2015). Complete male sterility due to reciprocal translocations has also been reported in Allium consaguineum (Gohil and Koul 1978) and Allium roylei (Sharma and Gohil 2003, Kohli and Gohil 2011, Kohli and Koul 2013.…”