ChileanJAR

Karyotype of 34 garlic clones, kept at the Chilean Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias gene bank, was determined. After testing various cytological techniques, root tips were pre-treated with 0.1% Colchicine for 3 hr, fixed in Ethanol: Acetic Acid (3:1) for over 2 hr, macerated in 0.2 N HCI at 60 ºC for 3 min, stained with 1% Acetocarmine and squashed for observation with a phace contrast microscope at 1.000x. AII clones had 2n=16 chromosomes, with 24 of them having a basic karyotype in which chromosomes 1,2,3, and 4 were long and metacentric; chromosome 5, medium and metacentric; chromosome 6 medium, subacrocentric, and with satellite; chromosome 7 medium,' submetacentric, and also with satellite; and chromosome 8, short and submetacentric. Karyotype of 10 clones were different from the basic type in that in chron'losome 7 sorne 01 these clones showed no satellite; in chromosome 6, the short arm is smaller and the satellite was not presant; chromosomes 5 and 8, were submetacentric; and in certain chromosomes pairs were not equal. No clear relation was observed between chromosome structure and provenance, morphology or growth cyole of the different clones studied.