2014 Volume 79 Issue 2 Pages 187-194
In this study the variation of various karyotype characteristics in different populations of Papaver somniferum (opium poppy) and Papaver bracteatum (Iranian poppy) was evaluated. All populations were diploid, as the basic chromosome number of P. bracteatum and P. somniferum was 7 and 11, respectively. In P. bracteatum, the 14202, 16986 and P1007107 populations represented 2 metacentric and 5 submetacentric chromosomes, while the 23157 and P1006859 populations represented 1 metacentric, 5 submetacentric and 1 subtelocentric chromosomes. In P. somniferum the 13912 population had 2 metacentric, 5 submetacentric, 4 subtelocentric chromosomes, and the 13913 population comprised 2 metacentric, 7 submetacentric and 2 subtelocentric chromosomes, while the rest of the populations had 2 metacentric, 6 submetacentric and 3 subtelocentric chromosomes. All of the populations indicated 3A category, except for P1007107 whose category was 2A. In P. bracteatum the maximum and minimum chromosomal total length were 28.70 and 22.90 in the 23157 and 14202 populations, respectively, while in P. somniferum they were 32.97 and 29.05 in the 15093 and 13911 populations, respectively. Variance analysis indicated that there was no significant difference among the karyological traits in both species and thus, populations with different ecological origin were karyologically similar. The depicted scatter plot based on extracted components from the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) showed that P. somniferum populations separated from P. bracteatum populations.
