Infraspecific morphological and genome size variations in Linum glaucum in Iran

Abstract

Talebi SM, Sheidai M, Atri M, Sharifnia F, Noormohammadi Z. 2015. Infraspecific morphological and genome size
variations in Linum glaucum in Iran. Biodiversitas 16: 69-78. There are many discussions about taxonomic position of Linum glaucum
in different Flora. In this study, the morphological traits associated with the nuclear genome size were used for identification of
infraspecific variations in the nine populations of L. glaucum. Twenty three qualitative and quantitative morphological characteristics
were investigated. The Analysis of variance tests showed significant difference for some morphological features. The Canonical
Correspondence Analysis of habitat ecological factors showed that each of the habitats had prominent characteristics, and also Pearson’s
coefficient of correlation confirmed the significant correlations between the morphological features in relation to ecological factors. In
the morphological Unweighted Paired Group using Average method tree, populations were separated from each other, so that population
No. 4 was separated from others. In the flow cytometery investigations, variation of about 1.19 times was presented between the
maximum and minimum averages of the genome sizes in the populations. Minimum amount of genome size was found in populations
No. 4. Significant correlations occurred between the nuclear genome size with habitat elevation as well as some of the quantitative
morphological features. The mentioned variations caused to difference between the populations and lead to creation of ecotype and
ecophene in the studied populations.