tailieunhanh - The taxonomy and variation of leaf anatomical characters in the genus Aegilops L. (Poaceae) in Iran

This study concerns the evaluation of leaf anatomical characters (7 qualitative and 12 quantitative characters) among 26 accessions of the Aegilops L. species. The results of this study showed that the anatomical characters have high variation in the width of stomata, the number of long cells in the adaxial epidermis, the number of short cells in the abaxial epidermis, the number of stomata in the abaxial epidermis, the occurrence of prickles in the adaxial epidermis, and the width of phloem cells. | Turk J Bot 31 (2007) 1-9 © TÜB‹TAK Research Article The Taxonomy and Variation of Leaf Anatomical Characters in the Genus Aegilops L. (Poaceae) in Iran Navaz KHARAZIAN* Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Shahrekord, Shahrekord - IRAN Received: Accepted: Abstract: This study concerns the evaluation of leaf anatomical characters (7 qualitative and 12 quantitative characters) among 26 accessions of the Aegilops L. species. The results of this study showed that the anatomical characters have high variation in the width of stomata, the number of long cells in the adaxial epidermis, the number of short cells in the abaxial epidermis, the number of stomata in the abaxial epidermis, the occurrence of prickles in the adaxial epidermis, and the width of phloem cells. The variations in anatomical characters were related to the cold and warm areas of Iran and commonly occurred among the tetraploid species. The indumentum and length of hairs in the epidermis, the occurrence and length of prickles in the epidermis, the width of sclerenchyma strands, and the number of stomata were found to be distinguishing characters among the species and of taxonomic value. Finally, Ae. columnaris Zhuk. is separated from both Ae. umbellulata Zhuk. and Ae. triuncialis L, whereas Ae. speltoides Tausch. can be considered a species different from Ae. triuncialis. Key Words: Anatomical, Aegilops, taxonomy, Iran, variation Introduction The genus Aegilops L. (Family: Poaceae; Tribe: Triticeae) has 13 species in Iran (Bor, 1968, 1970). The life form of Aegilops species is annual with a mainly outcrossing breeding system (Waines & Barnhart, 1992). This genus is a pastoral plant that consists of only one donor species to the gene pool of Triticum L. (Lange & Jochemsen, 1992a) and causes the evolution of hexaploid wheat (Waines & Barnhart, 1992; Slageren, 1994). The ploidy levels of Aegilops species are diploid (2n = 2x =14, x = 7), tetraploid (2n = 4x =