Agro-Morphological, Microanatomical and Molecular Cytogenetic Characterization of the Medicinal Plant Chelidonium majus L.

Abstract

Chelidonium majus L. is a medicinal plant well-known as a valuable source of isoquinoline alkaloids, which has a variety of pharmacological properties including anti-viral and anti-bacterial effects. However, considerable intraspecific bio-morphological variability in C. majus complicates raw material identification and verification. For the first time, we have brought into cultivation five populations of C. majus subsp. majus originated from different regions, and performed their agro-morphological, microanatomical and molecular cytogenetic characterization. All examined populations produced high seed (18.6–19.9 kg/ha) and raw material (0.84–1.08 t/ha) yields; total alkaloid contents were within 0.30–0.38%. Nevertheless, significant differences in plant morphology and yield-contributing traits were observed. The performed microanatomical analysis of leaves and flowers in double- and normal-flowered plants revealed micro-diagnostic features (including tissue topography, types of stomata, laticifers, structure of leaf mesophyll, hairs, sepals and petals) important for identification of C. majus raw materials. The analysis of chromosome morphology, DAPI-banding patterns, FISH mapping of 45S and 5S rDNA and also chromosome behavior in meiosis allowed us to identify for the first time all chromosomes in karyotypes and confirm relative genotype stability of the studied plants. Our findings indicate that the examined C. majus populations can be used in further breeding programs.

The Cultivation of Chelidonium majus L. Increased the Total Alkaloid Content and Cytotoxic Activity Compared with Those of Wild-Grown Plants

“…Wide variation in the alkaloid content in C. majus has been reported previously by other authors [ 18 , 27 , 28 ]. Many factors, such as genotype, plant age, developmental phases, harvesting time, and environmental conditions, can affect the alkaloid content in raw plant material.…”

Floral Morphology and Chromosome Characteristics of Bamboo Orchid from Menoreh Hills, Kulonprogo

“…Cytogenetic studies are important in taxonomic studies because each species has a different number and structure of chromosomes (Bolcun-Filas and Schimenti, 2012). Cytological studies play a role in studying the presence of morphological abnormalities (Samatadze et al, 2020), studying evolutionary processes (Lusinska et al, 2019), identification (Lukhtanov and Shapoval, 2017) and to study the diversity of a species (Bzdega et al, 2016 ).…”

Agro-Morphological and Cytogenetic Characterization of Colchicine-Induced Tetraploid Plants of Polemonium caeruleum L. (Polemoniaceae)

“…In some karyotypes, small variations in the size of the 45S rDNA and 5S rDNA clusters were observed. It has previously been reported that the copy number of rRNA genes could slightly vary in different plant populations, which could be related to intraspecies diversity [ 51 , 52 ]. At the same time, considerable chromosome abnormalities such as chromosome rearrangements or aneuploidy were not revealed in the studied plants, indicating the relative stability of their karyotypes.…”

“…For fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) assays, the chromosome spread preparations were made as described previously with minor modifications [ 52 ]. Seeds were germinated in Petri dishes on the moist filter paper at RT.…”