SummaryIn continuation of past trials to develop a triploid chamomile cultivar, flow cytometer investigations to determine spontaneous ploidy variation in established cultivars of Matricaria recutita were carried out. The screening of a total of 120 plants of three cultivars included general analysis of ploidy level and specific differentiation of aneuploids. Microscopic counts of mitotic chromosome numbers in some reference individuals and comparison of flowering and seed characters between cultivars and ploidy levels were included. Results showed ploidy level-deviants in two of three cultivars and a clear segregation of a uniform diploid unit of plants against a dispersive tetraploid unit with numerous hyper-and hypotetraploid aneuploids, but no triploids. The tendency to flower was significantly higher in diploid plants (vs. tetraploids), whereas the flowering duration of plants and the flowering duration of single capitula rose slightly with increasing ploidy level. Matricaria recutita seems not to produce triploids easily, as none were observed; they neither occurred through spontaneous formation nor after controlled crossing. However, autotetraploid aneuploids with varying number of chromosomes emerged frequently. This study sought genetically non-modifying methods to gain triploids and to reveal any aneuploids, resp., in Matricaria recutita. The base chromosome number in Matricaria recutita is x=9, the haploid genome size in diploid individuals is 3.88 pg (Nagl and Ehrendorfer 1974). So far, only one triploid plant was successfully generated after about 500 artificial crossings between diploid and tetraploid individuals. This hybrid offspring was propagated by cuttings (Franz and BeinLobmaier, unpublished). Previous investigations of different ploidy levels in German chamomile revealed a high percentage of aneuploid individuals (52%) among colchicine-induced autotetraploids (Lambrou et al. 2001, pers. comm.), a very low number of, by then sterile, seeds after artificial crossing between di-and tetraploids (Letchamo 1992), but unexpectedly high pollen viability (81.6%, estimated by analysis of mature pollen grains after acetocarmine staining) in cloned triploid hybrids (Lambrou et al. 2001, pers. comm.). In consequence, flow cytometric examinations of a large amount of plants of different established cultivars were carried out to determine particular ploidy levels and possibly to reveal spontaneous triploids or other chromosomal aberrations, respectively. Additionally there was the aim to compare agronomically relevant traits of the reproductive system between different ploidy levels and/or different cultivars.
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