Karyotyping of Nigella sativa L. (Black Cumin) and Nigella damascena L. (Love-in-a-mist) by Image Analyzing System

Summary Karyotyping through Image Analyzing System in two species of Nigella (family: Ra-nunculaceae) revealed 4 (N. sativa: 2n124A4B2C2D; karyotype formula: 2Lsc1sm 2L1m2Lsm2Lm2Mm2St) and 3 (N. damascena: 2n126B4C2D; karyotype formula: 4Lm sc2Lm4Mm2St) morphologically distinct chromosome types (L1very long 15.0 mm, Llong 13.0 to 15.0 mm, Mmedium 7.0 to 13.0 mm, Sshort 7.0 mm, mmetacentric, smsub-metacentric, ttelocentric and scsatellites). The somatic chromosome complements in the species formed graded karyotypes which were symmetric in nature (TF%: N. sativa 42.90, N. damascena 40.62). Total haploid chromatin length was noted to be 78.622 mm in N. sativa and 70.136 mm in N. damascena. Key words Imaging techniques, Karyotypes, Nigella sativa, N. damascena. Nigella sativa L. (black cumin; spice of commerce) and Nigella damascena L. (love-in-a-mist; garden ornamental), members of the family Ranunculaceae have been karyotyped manually and the species were considered to be good materials for cytological studies as they have relatively low numbers of chromosomes (2n12) of suitable sizes with good stainability and a marker telocentri