Abstract
The meiotic chromosome number and behavior of 12 Iranian populations belonging to six Astragalus species, A. submitis, A. raddei, A. crassispinus, A. ebenoides, A. szovitsii and A. lalesarensis of A. sect. Megalocystis, are presented here. All taxa studied are diploid and possess 2n=2x=16 chromosome number, consistent with the proposed base number of x=8 from ICPN. Although the taxa displayed regular bivalent pairing and chromosome segregation at meiosis, some meiotic abnormalities observed, included varied degrees of fragmented chromosomes, cytomixis, asynchronous nucleus, laggard, sticky and forward chromosomes, desynapsis and unequal polars.
