New data on genome size in 128 Asteraceae species and subspecies, with first assessments for 40 genera, 3 tribes and 2 subfamilies

Abstract

The Asteraceae family has been broadly studied, but the values of genome size of only 3.5% of their species are known. To expand these data, we carried out a flow cytometric study of nuclear DNA content in a wide range of taxa of this family, filling gaps in some less studied groups. In addition, some chromosome counts have been performed (46 taxa, including the first one in two species and one subspecies). We provide genome size data for 167 taxa (184 accessions). Of these, data are new for 128 species and subspecies (141 accessions), 40 genera, three tribes (Barnadesieae, Gochnatieae and Nassauvieae) and two subfamilies (Barnadesioideae and Gochnatioideae). Most values (about 75%) are small or very small (1C ≤ 3.5 pg). The second reports on 17 species previously studied with other methods (i.e. first flow cytometric assessments) are also given. Finally, we contribute results for 22 species for which a first flow cytometric assessment has been published during the preparation of this article. The current data-set moves the percentage of coverage approximately from 3% to 4.7% at the specific level, from 6% to 11.6% at the generic level, from 34.9% to 41.9% at the tribal level and from 33% to 50% at the subfamily level.