CYTOGENETIC STUDY OF VARIOUS TYPES OF TEA (CAMELLIA SINENSIS) CULTIVARS IN IRAN

Document Type : Regular Paper

Authors

1 Biology Department, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, I. R. of Iran

2 Genetic Department, Azad University, Tehran, I. R. of Iran

3 Tea Research Institute, Lahijan, I. R. of Iran

Abstract

Tea (Camellia sinensis) is one of the most economically important crops and is considered to
be the national drink of Iran. Although there has been an intensive cytogenetic study of tea in different
regions of the world, there has been no report from Iran. Therefore, the present investigation was carried
out in order to present the basic cytogenetical features of various tea cultivators grown in the country.
The meiotic analysis of the tea cultivators studied showed variation in the prophase sub-stage of meiosis-
I, due to the occurrence of a synezetic knot and post pachytene diffuse sub-stage. All tea cultivators
studied were diploid, with the chromosome number n=15. Although the major feature of chromosome
association was bivalent formation, quadrivalents were formed in the cultivator 3013, possibly due to
structural hybridity. The ANOVA test showed the presence of a significant difference among the
cultivators for terminal, intercalary and total chiasmata, as well as ring bivalents indicating their genomic
differences. Cluster analysis and PCA ordination of cultivators which are based on meiotic
characteristics, group those cultivators which show cytogenetic similarities.

Keywords

Iranian Journal of Science
Volume 28, Issue 1 - Serial Number 1
May and June 2004
Pages 33-42

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics