Karyotypic variation in Nicotiana section Suaveolentes

Abstract

Nicotiana section Suaveolentes (Solanaceae) currently includes 28 species and subspecies that are endemic to Australasia and the South Pacific and one African species, N. africana. The section is monophyletic and of allotetraploid origin, but relationships among the species in it and its diploid progenitors are poorly understood. Here we report chromosome numbers for 20 of the 29 taxa from the Suaveolentes, including a count for one recently proposed species for which no number has previously been available. Many of the published chromosome numbers for the Suaveolentes are confirmed in this study. However, six counts were different from the published numbers including n = 15 for N. maritima and N. suaveolens, which is a new chromosome number for the genus. Nicotiana goodspeedii and N. rotundifolia were n = 16, and the same number was found in the suggested species N. sp. ‘Corunna’. Nicotiana suaveolens contains polyploid races of n = 32 and here we report the probable existence of an n = 31 race as well. Karyotypic variation within species and within the section is apparently much greater than previously thought and further investigation is warranted.