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Abstract
Euterpe (Martius, 1823), a genus from Central and South America, has species with high economic importance in Brazil, because of their palm heart and fruits, known as açaí berries. Breeding programs have been conducted to increase yield and establish cultivation systems to replace the extraction of wild material. These programs need basic information about the genome of these species to better explore the available genetic variability. The aim of this study was to compare Euterpe edulis (Martius, 1824), Euterpe oleracea (Martius, 1824) and Euterpe precatoria (Martius, 1842), with regard to karyotype, type of interphase nucleus and nuclear DNA amount. Metaphase chromosomes and interphase nuclei from root tip meristematic cells were obtained by the squashing technique and solid stained for microscope analysis. The DNA amount was estimated by flow cytometry. There were previous reports on the chromosome number of Euterpe edulis and Euterpe oleracea, but chromosome morphology of these two species and the whole karyotype of Euterpe precatoria are reported for the first time. The species have 2n=36, a number considered as a pleisomorphic feature in Arecoideae since the modern species, according to floral morphology, have the lowest chromosome number (2n=28 and 2n=30). The three Euterpe species also have the same type of interphase nuclei, classified as semi-reticulate. The species differed on karyotypic formulas, on localization of secondary constriction and genome size. The data suggest that the main forces driving Euterpe karyotype evolution were structural rearrangements, such as inversions and translocations that alter chromosome morphology, and either deletion or amplification that led to changes in chromosome size.
Highlights
Euterpe (Martius, 1823) (Arecaceae-Arecoideae), is composed of seven species distributed from Central to South America (Henderson 1995)
The same pairs are quite different in E. precatoria, which has the highest number of submetacentric chromosomes and one acrocentric pair, the largest and only pair of chromosomes with that morphology (Fig. 1b,d,f)
The chromosomes may differ in terms of centromere position, according to Stebbins (1971), through pericentric inversions or uneven translocations, rearrangements that substantially contribute to the increase of karyotype asymmetry
Summary
Euterpe (Martius, 1823) (Arecaceae-Arecoideae), is composed of seven species distributed from Central to South America (Henderson 1995). In Brazil, Euterpe edulis (Martius, 1824), Euterpe oleracea (Martius, 1824) and Euterpe precatoria (Martius, 1842) are considered the most important species of the genus due to their wide distribution and economic importance of their fruits and palm hearts, obtained mainly by extractive activity in Brazil (Castro 1992). The high commercial value of their products, especially of the açaí palm (E. oleracea), has encouraged the development of genetic improvement programs to produce cultivars with higher yield and better quality of fruits and palm heart. There are no data regarding the interphase nucleus for the genus Euterpe. There are no data regarding the interphase nucleus for the genus Euterpe. Röser (1994) studied 56 taxa belonging to six subfamilies of Arecaceae and found highly differentiated interphase nuclei, ranging from reticulate and semi-reticulated to an intermediate stage between semi-reticulate and areticulate
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