Karyotype and flow cytometry analyse of some turkish populations of Crepis foetida L. subsp. rhoeadifolia (M.Bieb.) Čelak (Asteraceae)

The genus Crepis, belonging the tribe Cichorieae of the family Asteraceae (Compositae), is predominantly distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, while some species are found in tropical East Africa, South Africa and West Africa. It contains more than 200 species in worldwide and is represented by 40 taxa in our country. In this study, karyotype and flow cytometric analyses of 7 populations of Crepis foetida L. subsp. rhoeadifolia (M.Bieb.) Čelak (Trabzon, Ankara, Nevşehir, Erzurum, Ağrı, Van and Şanlıurfa) one of the the polymorphic species of the genus Crepis were performed for the first time. In this context, plant materials collected with field studies were used. Karyotype and flow cytometric analyses were carried out using the actively growing root tips and young leaves obtained from germinated mature achenes. As a result of the karyological studies, it was determined that the chromosome number of C. foetida subsp. rhoeadifolia was 2n = 2x = 10 in all populations examined, and its karyotypes composed of metacentric and submetacentric chromosomes. The results showed that the amount of nuclear DNA analysed by flow cytometry varied between 3.72 and 4.35 pg within the subspecies, while the monoploid genome size varied between 1.86 and 2.18 pg. It was determined that there were minor variations in the karyotype and significant variations in nuclear DNA content within this subspecies.