Duplicação cromossômica em plantas: Solanum melongena L. como modelo

Abstract

Polyploidy induction is an important tool in plant breeding, but usually results in low efficiency and high rates of mixoploid and aneuploid plants. Synthetic polyploids can be obtained by the exposure to antimitotic agents, which interfere with the spindle formation during cell division. Colchicine is the most widely used antimitotic in polyploidy induction studies. However, the underlying mechanisms of its action on cells are not completely clear. Solanum melongena L. (eggplant) has a great in vitro regeneration capacity, an interesting feature to the development of basic and biotechnological studies. This work aimed to use eggplant as a model to study the process of chromosome doubling in plants. Cytogenetic techniques, flow cytometry and in vitro polyploidy induction were performed. Chapter I focused on the cytogenetic characterization of the cultivar Embu of eggplant, which was used in all experiments. This cultivar presented 24 chromosomes with length ranging from 1.77 to 2.63 μm. The karyotype was symmetrical and two secondary constrictions were observed. The CMA3/DAPI banding showed four CMA positive bands. The FISH technique allowed the observation of one pair of sites of 5S rDNA and two pairs of 45S. The objective of chapter II was to evaluate the effects of colchicine (0.2% and 0.02%) on the eggplant cell cycle and the efficiency of these concentrations in the polyploidy induction. Innovatively, hydroxyurea was used as a cell cycle synchronizer, in an attempt to increase the efficiency of polyploidization. The cell cycle evaluation was conducted in root meristems with and without cell synchronization and the analysis were performed by light microscopy and flow cytometry. In vitro induction of polyploidy was performed on synchronized and non-synchronized seeds and nodal segments. No significant differences were detected in the mitotic index. Higher frequencies of c-metaphases, polyploid metaphases and polyploid nuclei (2xG2) were observed after the exposure to the higher treatment with colchicine (0.2%). The polyploidy induction protocols tested were efficient, with the regeneration of polyploid plants after all colchicine treatments. Of the 480 treated explants, 342 were successfully regenerated, being 45 tetraploids and 90 mixoploids.