Analysis of karyotype and chromosome characteristics in Iranian accessions of Falcaria vulgaris Bernh.

Plant karyotyping provides ordering and pairing all the chromosomes that can be used to determine the origin and genetic background of accessions. In this study, the karyotyping of 28 Iranian Falcaria vulgaris Bernh. accessions were evaluated for the first time. All accessions detected with the same number of chromosomes (2n=2x=22). However, in all samples, differences were found in the position of the centromere on chromosome pair 11. Our results demonstrated that the all chromosomes mainly have metacentric and sub-metacentric morphology. Karyotype asymmetry (F19) was observed among the accessions with 2A and 3A for F. vulgaris. So that the maximum asymmetry index (AsK) was related to F19 accession (74.95 %). Among the studied accessions, differences were found in chromosomes lengths, symmetry of karyotypes, relative length of chromosome (RL%), total form percentage (TF%), coefficient of variation of chromosome length (CVcl), average arm ratio (AR), centromeric index (CI), and ideogram chromosomes. The results indicated high cytological diversity of Iranian F. vulgaris accessions, suggesting that the geographical and environmental factors might have an effective role in the genetic structure and evolution of F. vulgaris chromosomes.