Centre of Plant Structural and
Functional Genomics
of the Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR

In allopolyploid species whose basic genomes are known to be of different size, it is possible to use flow cytometric measurement of nuclear DNA content for estimation of their genome composition.

Figure 22. Flow cytometric estimation of nuclear genome composition in two triploid clones of Musa. In both cases, nuclei of Musa (M) and Lycopersicum esculentum (L, 2C = 1.96 pg DNA), which was used as an internal standard, were isolated, stained and analysed simultaneously.

Interpretation of histograms shown in Figure 22:

• Pelipita = A + 2×B = 0.62 pg + 2 ×0.57 pg = 1.76 pg
• Grand Nain = 3×A = 3 ×0.62 pg = 1.86 pg

Table 4. Genome constitution of some Musa clones