Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Characterization of Tulbaghia violacea (Tulbaghieae, Allioideae, Amaryllidaceae) from India: a cytogenetic and molecular approach

  • Original Article
  • Published:
The Nucleus Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Tulbaghia violacea, called ‘wild garlic’, is a native of Africa, though it is widely cultivated all over the world for its medicinal and horticultural importance. Absence of the genus from Indian floras and taxonomic surveys, as well as lack of proper molecular and cytogenetic characterizations, have instigated questions regarding origin and divergence of the Indian counterpart from its African relatives. In the present study, morphotaxonomical identification of Indian T. violacea was carried out, along with its karyomorphological characterization, 2C nuclear genome content determination, and analysis of ITS sequence. Mitotic study revealed that this species possessed 2n = 2x = 12 somatic chromosomes, two of which had secondary constrictions, whereas unstable meiotic chromosomal behavior was observed in flower buds, as reported earlier. 2C nuclear DNA content of T. violacea (44.51 ± 0.06 pg) was reported for the first time using flow cytometry, as was the ITS sequence data, from India.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Angiosperm Phylogeny Group [APG III]. An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III. Bot J Linn Soc. 2009;161:105–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Altschul SF, Gish W, Miller W, Myers EW, Lipman DJ. Basic local alignment search tool. J Mol Biol. 1990;215:403–10.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Benham S. Tulbaghia: a survey of the species in cultivation. Plantsman. 1993;15:89–110.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Bennett MD. Nuclear DNA content and minimum generation time in herbaceous plants. Proc R Soc Lond (Biol). 1972;181:109–35.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Blattner FR. Direct amplification of the entire ITS region from poorly preserved plant material using recombinant PCR. Biotechniques. 1999;27:1180–6.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Burbidge RB. Cytotaxonomic studies in the genus Tulbaghia. Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; 1970.

  7. Doležel J, Sgorbati S, Lucretti S. Comparison of three DNA fluorochromes for flow cytometric estimation of nuclear DNA content in plants. Physiol Plant. 1992;85:625–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Doležel J, Bartoš J. Plant DNA flow cytometry and estimation of nuclear genome size. Ann Bot. 1995;95:99–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Doležel J, Bartoš J, Voglmayr H, Greilhuber J. Nuclear DNA content and genome size of trout and human. Cytometry. 2003;51:127–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Doyle J, Doyle JL. Genomic plant DNA preparation from fresh tissue—CTAB method. Phytochem Bull. 1987;19:11–5.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Dutta M, Bandyopadhyay M. Karyomorphological study and report of B chromosome in Allium griffithianum Boiss. from India. Nucleus. 2014;57:209–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Greilhuber J. ‘Self-tanning’—a new and important source of stoichiometric error in cytophotometric determination of nuclear DNA content in plants. Plant Syst Evol. 1988;158:87–96.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Harvey WH. Tulbaghia violacea. Violet-flowered Tulbaghia. Bot Mag. 1837;64:t.3555.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Huang X, Madan A. CAP3: a DNA sequence assembly program. Genome Res. 1999;9:868–77.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank. Accessed 10 Jul 2016.

  16. Ingle J, Timmis JN, Sinclair J. Relationship between satellite deoxyribonucleic acid, ribosomal ribonucleic acid gene redundancy, and genome size in plants. Plant Physiol. 1975;55:496–501.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  17. Lakshmi N. Spontaneous chromosome breakage and inversion heterozygosity in a clone of Tulbaghia violacea Harv. Cytologia. 1988;53:157–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Lyantagaye SL. Ethnopharmacological and phytochemical review of Allium species (sweet garlic) and Tulbaghia species (wild garlic) from Southern Africa. Tanzan J Sci. 2011;37:58–72.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Mookerjea A. Cytology of Amaryllids as an aid to the understanding of evolution. Caryologia. 1955;7:1–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Sadhu A, Bhadra S, Bandyopadhyay M. Novel nuclei isolation buffer for flow cytometric genome size estimation of Zingiberaceae: a comparison with common isolation buffers. Ann Bot. 2016;118:1057–70.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  21. Stafford GI, Wikkelsø MJ, Nancke L, Jäger AK, Möller M, Rønsted N. The first phylogenetic hypothesis for the Southern African endemic genus Tulbaghia (Amaryllidaceae, Allioideae) based on plastid and nuclear DNA sequences. Bot J Linn Soc. 2016;181:156–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Vosa CG. A revised cytotaxonomy of the genus Tulbaghia. Caryologia. 2000;53:83–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Authors acknowledge the Young Scientist Project, Science and Engineering Research Board, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, for financial assistance. Dr. Jaroslav Doležel (Laboratory of Molecular Cytogenetics and Cytometry, Institute of Experimental Botany, Czech Republic) is acknowledged for his kind contribution with flow cytometry standard plant seeds. The Director, Centre for Research in Nanoscience & Nanotechnology (CRNN), University of Calcutta is acknowledged for providing BD FACSVerse™ Flow Cytometer instrument used in this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Molecular Cytogenetics Laboratory, Centre of Advanced Study, Department of Botany, University of Calcutta, 35, B. C. Road, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700019, India

    Abhishek Sadhu, Sreetama Bhadra & Maumita Bandyopadhyay

Authors
  1. Abhishek Sadhu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sreetama Bhadra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Maumita Bandyopadhyay
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maumita Bandyopadhyay.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sadhu, A., Bhadra, S. & Bandyopadhyay, M. Characterization of Tulbaghia violacea (Tulbaghieae, Allioideae, Amaryllidaceae) from India: a cytogenetic and molecular approach. Nucleus 61, 29–34 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13237-017-0202-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13237-017-0202-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation