QUANTITATIVE COMPARISON OF THE NUCLEAR DNA IN SECTION SITOPSIS OF THE GENUS AEGILOPS

Abstract

To consider the phylogeny of wheat and its relatives, nuclear DNA content in 43 strains of section Sitopsis of the genus Aegilops was measured Feulgencytophotometrically using pollen tetrad nuclei. Strains (43) showed a graded series of DNA content of 180-314, i.e., a variation of 1.74 fold. Significant difference in nuclear DNA content among 5 taxa were observed as A. sharonensis > A. longissima = A. bicornis > A. speltoides = A. aucheri. A significant test on the mean differences between species revealed no difference between A. speltoides and A. aucheri which are closely relatived. There were intraspecific variations in 2 ssp. with S1 genome, A. longissima and A. sharonensis; A. speltoides (S genome), A. aucheri (S) and A. bicornis (Sb) had no significant variation within species. Species relationships in section Sitopsis of the genus Aegilops were discussed.