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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

physical mapping, DNA sequences, chenopod chromosomes, Florescence Situ hybridization, FISH

College

Life Sciences

Department

Plant and Wildlife Sciences

Abstract

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) is an Andean cereal chenopod known for its ideal nutritional characteristics along with its abilities to grow in drought conditions and in soils with high salt content (Fairbanks 2002). Until recently, quinoa has received little attention from the scientific community; but due to recognition of its nutritional and agronomic potential, science is now beginning to take interest (Fleming 1995). Among the few genetic studies published, Giusti (1970) established the base chromosome number of the species to be eight or nine with varying ploidy levels. More recently, Kolano (2001) mapped the 45S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequences using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) in two lines of C. quinoa: PIQ-1 and PIQ-8; both were tetraploid accessions having 36 chromosomes. Parkinson (2001) also mapped 45S rDNA using FISH in two other quinoa lines: ‘Surimi’ and ‘Real’. Two signals were observed in all for genotypes, indicating there is only one pair of chromosomes harboring a single 45S locus in spite of the allotetraploid composition of the quinoa genome (Ward 2000).

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