Effects of shoot tip colchicine applications on some grape cultivars

Abstract

Polyploidization can provide changes in vital features such as growth, development, environmental stress tolerance inplants. Colchicine is one of the most commonly used chemicals as a polyploidization agent. In this study, 2-year-old‘Ekşi Kara’, ‘Gök Üzüm’ and ‘Trakya İlkeren’ (2x, Vitis vinifera L.) saplings grown on their own roots were used. Whenthe enforced shoots reached about 15 cm length, colchicine applied (0, 2.5 g L-1, 5 g L-1, 7.5 g L-1) 24 and 48 hours tothe lateral shoot tips. The effects of treatments were evaluated by shoot tip viability, stoma size and density, chloroplastcounts, and flow cytometry (FC) analysis, and ‘Kyoho’ (4x) were used as the control. The maximum stomatal variationswere determined in Ekşi Kara cultivar at 2.5 g L-1 24-h application. Based on morphological differences, FC analysiswas performed only in ‘Ekşi Kara’ but there was no genomic duplication. Since the morphological differences were notsufficient in the diagnosis of polyploid in grape cultivars, FC analysis should be performed to achieve confirmed results.