Morphometric traits in the fine-leaved fescues depend on ploidy level: the case ofFestuca amethystinaL.

• DOI: 10.7717/peerj.5576
• Publication Date: 2018-09-24T08:23:18Z
• Authors: Agnieszka Rewicz; Przemysław Piotr ...; Marcin Kiedrzyński; Katarzyna Maria Z...; Iwona Jędrzejczyk; Monika Rewers; Edyta Kiedrzyńska; Tomasz Rewicz
• Keywords: Festuca; 0301 basic medicine; Conservation Biology; QH301-705.5; R; Cross-sections of leaves; 03 medical and health sciences; DNA content; Medicine; Flow cytometry; Genom size; Biology (General); Morphometric analysis

BackgroundPolyploid specimens are usually characterized by greater exuberance: they reach larger sizes and/or have a larger number of some organs.Festuca amethystinaL. belongs to the sectionAulaxyper. Based on morphological features, four subspecies ofF. amethystinahave been already identified. On the other hand, it has two cytotypes: diploid and tetraploid. The main aim of our study was to distinguish morphological differences between the cytotypes ofF. amethystina, assuming that its phenotype differs significantly.MethodsThe nuclear DNA content was measured by flow cytometry in dry leaves from specimens originating from 13 populations of F. amethystina. Several macrometric and micrometric traits of stems, spikelets and leaf blades were taken into account in the comparative analysis of two cytotypes.ResultsIn the case of cytotypes, specimens of tetraploids were larger than diploids. The conducted morphometric analysis of leaf cross-sections showed significant differences between the cytotypes.DiscussionThe research has confirmed for the first time that in the case ofF. amethystinathe principle of greater exuberance of polyploids is true. Differences between the cytotypes are statistically significant, however, they are not enough to make easy the distinction of cytotypes on the basis of the measurements themselves. Our findings favor the rule known inFestucataxonomy as a whole, i.e. that the ploidy level can be one of the main classification criteria.