CHROMOSOME BIOLOGY 2021

4TH EDITION

Phaseolus vulgaris L.

LEGUMINOSAE

▼ P. vulgaris (2n = 22), the common bean, is the

most nutritious and economically important species

of the genus. It is part of the human diet for

thousands of years, when it was domesticated from

its two genepools, the Mesoamerican and the

Andean.

▲ Oligo-FISH barcode on mitotic metaphase chromosomes of P. vulgaris. One to five regions of unique sequences were selected per chromosome pair using the genome of

Vigna unguiculata as reference (the species diverged about 10.4 My ago). Two oligonucleotide pools were labelled in red and green and used as probes. The combination of

signals allows the identification of each chromosome pair.

Thiago Henrique do Nascimento, Fernanda de Oliverira Bustamante, Lívia do Vale Martins, Guilherme T. Braz, Jiming Jiang, Ana Christina Brasileiro-

Vidal & Andrea Pedrosa-Harand (Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil and Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA )

JANUARYMonday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

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JANUARY

▲ In situ probing of pachytene chromosomes of diploid xFestulolium braunii demonstrates regular pairing of the homoeologous chromosomes and subsequent

recombination among parental genomes of Festuca pratensis (green color) and Lolium multiflorum (red color). This results in highly heterogeneous progeny of the hybrids.

Mitotic cell: ImmunoFISH of CENH3 (green) and gDNA of F. pratensis (red) in diploid Festulolium braunii

×Festulolium braunii (K.Richt.) A.Camus

POACEAE

▼ F. braunii (2n = 14), native and synthetic hybrid of

meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis Huds.) and

Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.), is one of

the most promising species for future forage grass

breeding in temperate climates to mitigate impacts

of climate change.

David Kopecky and Marco Tulio Mendes Ferreira (Institute of Experimental Botany, Olomouc, Czech Republic) & Adam J. Lukaszewski (University of California,

Riverside, USA)

Festuca pratensisLolium multiflorum

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FEBRUARY

Spelt wheat Triticum spelta L.

POACEAE

▼ T. spelta – hulled hexaploid wheat is grown in

Europe since late Neolith. Spelt was not recorded in

archeological sites of Asia, but 1957-59 pure spelt

fields were found by H. Kuckuck in Iran. Iranian

spelt might have originated from hybridization of

tetraploid emmer with Aegilops tauschii. European

spelt is thought to occur independently from

hybridization of bread wheat with Triticum dicoccon.

Picture shows a spike of Iranian spelt.

▲ Giemsa C-banding pattern of mitotic chromosomes of Iranian spelt.

E. Badaeva & A. Yankovskaya (VIGG, Russia) & N. Lysenko (VIR, Russia)

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MARCH

Phalaenopsis Fuchsia Princess ‘KHM648’

ORCHIDACEAE

▼ Fuchsia Princess (2n =38) is one of the most popular red-

flowered parents for the breeding of elite hybrids in Taiwan.

Understanding of meiotic recombination and chiasmata

formation may facilitate allele exchange and increase fertility,

hopefully leading to the breeding of new eye-catching hybrids.

▲ DAPI staining of large interphase chromosomes may allow for the integration of immunostaining with markers for recombination nodules and cross-overs. Regulation of

cross-overs and chiasmata formation in Phalaenopsis as well as in most tropical orchids is not very well understood. Univalents are frequently observed during male meiosis

(arrows).

Pablo Bolaños-Villegas (University of Costa Rica) & Fure-Chyi Chen (National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan)

10 µm

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APRIL

Macrozamia communis

ZAMIACEAE

▼ An ancient Australian Cycad discovered

1958 by L.A.S. Johnson. Many parts of the plant have been utilised for food and material, most of which is toxic if not processed correctly. Picture shows a 6-month-old seedling.

◄ Anaphase chromosomes of M. communis after invertedDAPI staining staining. Its large 25 Gb genome is packed into18 chromosomes per diploid nucleus. Estimated chromosomesize range between 10 - 20 µm. Note, sister chromatids areabout to separate.

10 µm

Ales Kovarik (Institute of Biophysics, Brno., Czech Republic)

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Maria Cuacos & Stefan Heckmann (IPK, Gatersleben, Germany)

Arabidopsis thaliana

BRASSICACEAE

▼ A. thaliana (2n = 10). Easy to grow and to

transform, a model organism for plant

research. We use a collection of fluorescent-

tagged lines to explore meiosis live with Light-

Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy.

▲ Dynamics of the meiotic protein ASY1 (fused to eYFP, green) during male meiosis inside of an Arabidopsis anther observed live over four hours. ASY1 decorates the meiotic

chromosome axes prior to synapsis, getting depleted afterwards, and re-appearing as bright foci towards the end of meiosis. Somatic nuclei expressing H2B-mRuby2 in magenta.

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JUNE

~71 µ

m

Ivona Kubalová, Markéta Černohorská Schmidt, Martina Huranová, Klaus Weisshart, Andreas Houben, & Veit Schubert (IPK, Gatersleben,

Germany)

▲ Expansion microscopy (ExM) is a method to magnify physically a specimen with preserved ultrastructure. It has the potential to explore structural features

beyond the diffraction limit of light (super-resolution). We expanded isolated barley nuclei ~4.2-times. Thus, already by conventual widefield microscopy the

chromatin ultrastructure labelled by DAPI becomes visible in the expanded nucleus.

Hordeum vulgare L.

POACEAE

▼ H. vulgare (barley, 2n=14)

belongs economically to the most

important cereal crops worldwide.

The large genome has a size of

~5.3 Gbp/1C.

~71 µm

Unexpanded nucleus Expanded nucleus

~11 µm

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Beta vulgaris

AMARANTHACEAE

▲ Multicolour FISH of repetitive DNAs along mitotic metaphase chromosomes of B. vulgaris. The first two rows show hybridizations with the endogenous pararetrovirus

beetEPRV3, including the reverse transcriptase (RT; red) and the movement protein (MP; green). These were complemented by hybridizations with the centromeric satellite pBV

I (white), the intercalary satellite pEV I (blue), as well as the 18S-5.8S-25S (turquoise) and 5S rDNAs (magenta). Arrows highlight the strongest beetEPRV3 clusters on

chromosomes 3 and 5, while arrowheads show co-localization with the 18S-5.8S-25S rDNA.

Nicola Schmidt, Beatrice Weber, Kathrin Seibt, Thomas Schmidt, Tony Heitkam (TU Dresden, Germany)

▼ Beta vulgaris (sugar beet, 2n = 18) is one of the most

important crops of the moderate climate zones, contributing to

approximately 14 % of the world’s sugar production. Sugar beet

is also grown for vegetables, animal feed and bioethanol.

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M. Mondin, Pagliarini M. S. (in memorian) & Aguiar-Perecin (CYNGELA, Dept. Genetics, ESALQ, University of São Paulo, Brazil)

▲ Maize pachytene chromosomes hybridized with a subtelomeric

sequence (green) and the Cent4 repeat (magenta), which marks

specifically chromosome 4. Perfect meiotic pairing in hybrids between

tropical and temperate maize inbred lines.

Zea mays

POACEAE

▼ Corn is one of the most important crops in the world,

and it has served as a model for cytogenetics and

breeding throughout history. Tropical germplasms have

been used to produce isogenic inbred lines, varying only

for heterochromatic knob composition.

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Immunostaining with CENH3 antibody combined with FISH for centromeric (Cereba) and telomeric repeats shows Rabl organization in 3C endosperm nucleus.

Endoreduplicated endosperm nuclei lose heterochromatin compaction, CenH3 and Rabl organization in an age and ploidy dependent manner.

Hordeum vulgare

POACEAE

A. Nowicka, L. Ferkova, M. Kovacik, M. Said & A. Pecinka (UEB, Olomouc, Czech Republic)

▼ Cereal grains comprise triploid

endosperm that is used for our nutrition.

The starchy endosperm contains large

endoreduplicated nuclei.

En

do

spe

rm | 2

4 D

AP

| 3

C

CENH3Telomeres Centromeres

En

do

spe

rm | 2

4 D

AP

| 2

4C

Merged | DAPI

▲

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Secale cereale

POACEAE

▼Secale cereale (Rye, 2n=2x=14) is an important

cereal crop. Additional chromosomes- B chromosomes

- occur in almost all wild or semi-wild populations,

which have been removed in modern cultivars owing to

selection for high fertility. In rye population carrying B

chromosomes their number varies between individuals

ranging from 0 to 6. High numbers of B chromosomes

have a severe effect on vigor and fertility. Photo by Neil

Jones (Wales University Aberystwyth, UK).

H. Sofia Pereira, Margarida Delgado, Wanda Viegas, João M. Rato, Augusta Barão & Ana D. Caperta (Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Lisboa, Portugal)

▲ Rye pachytene with two paired B chromosomes after FISH with repetitive sequences D1100(green) and E3900 (red) which are highly amplified in the terminal part of these chromosomes.

The D1100/E3900-enriched region is highly extended while the D1100 predominant domains are

more condensed.

10 µm

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Urochloa brizantha

POACEAE

▼ Zebu cows grazing hybrid Urochloa

(Brachiaria) grasses with various ploidies in a

sustainable tropical forage system incorporating

the legume Canavalia in Columbia, South

America.

▲ In situ hybridization with genomic DNA extracted from two diploid Urochloa (formerly Brachiaria) species helps identify and distinguish the genomes present in a hexaploid U.

brizantha (2n=6x=54). Genomic DNA probe from U. ruziziensis (2n=2x=18) gave stronger and weaker signals (green) in centromeric-pericentromeric regions of all 54

chromosomes from multiple diploid species, while a probe from U. brizantha (2n=2x=18) shows 6 rDNA signals (red).

Paulina Tomaszewska, Trude Schwarzacher & Pat Heslop-Harrison (University of Leicester, UK)

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DECEMBER

Frullania dilatata (L.) Dum.

FRULLANIACEAE, liverworts

▼ F. dilatata is a haploid-dominant plant that grows

on tree trunks. The species is dioicous, and the

germination of spores thus results in male or female

gametophytes. F. dilatata is unusual in having a

single male (V) and two female (U) sex

chromosomes. During meiosis, the two Us pair with

opposite ends of the V chromosome.

◄ Chromosomes of female and male gametophyte cells of

F. dilatata imaged by spatial structured illumination microscopy

.

The sex chromosomes can be easily recognized by their large

sizes.

A. Sousa and S.S. Renner (University of Munich) & V. Schubert (IPK, Germany)

2022JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL

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Coverpicture

MitoticanaphasechromosomesofScadoxusmultiflorusafterFISHusingahuman-typtelomereprobe(inred).

C.WäschandA.Houben(IPK,Gatersleben,Germany)

Acknowledgement

TheprintwassupportedbytheIPKGatersleben.Mostofall,Iwouldliketothankallcolleagueswhoprovidedthe

beautifulcontributions.AndreasHouben(IPK,Gatersleben,Germany)

http://www.ipk-gatersleben.de/en/breeding-

research/chromosome-structure-and-function/https://www.facebook.com/CSF1Houben/