This study aimed the establishment of the relation between karyotipic asymmetry values obtained for different accessions of both wild and cultivated species of Pennisetum from Germplasm Bank of Embrapa Gado de Leite/Juiz de Fora-Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Conventional cell cycle synchronization protocols and Feulgen staining method were used to obtain metaphases plates. The wild-type accessions corresponded to the species P. setosum (2n=6x=54), P. nervosum (2n=4x=36), and P. orientale (2n=4x=36), and the cultivated to P. purpureum (2n=4x=28) and P. glaucum (2n=2x=14). No significant difference was found for the total length of chromosomes (p>0.05) among the species. The analysis of intra-chromosomal asymmetry (A1) and inter-chromosomal asymmetry (A2) has shown that P. setosum has a tendency to chromosome asymmetry. P. nervosum, P. orientale, and P. purpureum have presented an intermediary level of asymmetry and P. glaucum, low asymmetry. Considering Stebbins criteria, the karyotype of P. glaucum and those from the three wild species fitted into the category 1A-symmetrical. With regard to P. purpureum, karyotypes of the accessions BAGs 54, 65 and 91 fitted into the category 2B and the other two genotypes (BAGs 63 and 75) fitted into the 1A. Comparison between the karyotype classification according to the inter- and intra-chromosomal asymmetry and Stebbins methodologies revealed that this last one alone was not able to detect small variations between karyotypes of the taxa closely related.
Pennisetum purpureum; Pennisetum glaucum; germplasm; karyotype
