The relationships of 12 species in six genera in the tribe Anthemideae of the Asteraceae such as Achillea santolina, A. fragrantissima, Anacyclus monanthos, Cotula anthemoids, C. barbata, C. cinerea, Glebionis coronaria var. discolor, Matricaria recutita and M. aurea collected in different localities in Egypt and have been addressed based on polymophism in ITS sequence. Phylogenetic relationships were constructed using bioinformatic tools based on molecular data of ITS sequence. Studied taxa showed cryptic differences in ITS and thus, they could be distinctly separated from the other close relatives of the genera in the tribe Anthemideae.

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Autotetraploid Osmunda banksiifolia (2n=4x=88) was produced by induced apospory for the first time. The sizes of guard cells and mature spores showed the differences between the autotetraploid and the diploid sporophytes (p<0.01). The spematozoids of 2x antheridia were also larger than those of x antheridia (p<0.01). The meiotic chromosome configuration of the autotetraploid sporophyte showed univalent, bivalent and multivalent chromosomes at metaphase I and lagging chromosomes were frequently observed at both anaphase I and anaphase II. Among 30 spores one showed to be unreduced. From the 4x gametophyte 8x sporophytes could not be produced in O. banksiifolia.

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The present study was carried out to induce cytological variations on Capsicum annuum L. (2n=24) var. Pusa Jwala by using various doses of gamma rays. Progenies were raised from the seeds of the selected cultivar treated with eight different doses of gamma rays, viz., 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 kR at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai. Cytological studies were carried out in the treated as well as in control materials. Gamma rays have shown a significant effect causing various types of chromosomal abnormalities such as univalents, multivalents, bridges, stickiness, precocious segregation, laggards and chromosome fragment.

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