Cytogenetic Characterisation of Artemisia absinthium (Asteraceae, Anthemideae) and Its Polish Endemic var. calcigena

This paper presents a karyological and cytogenetic characterisation of Artemisia absinthium var. absinthium and A. absinthium var. calcigena (Asteraceae, Anthemideae). Genome size (assessed as nuclear DNA amount), chromosome number, karyotype parameters, fluorochrome banding and fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH) of 18S–5.8S–26S and 5S rDNA were studied in Polish specimens of both varieties whose phylogenetic relationships were also established based on their molecular structure. The present study is the first with a focus on A. absinthium var. calcigena. The results basically agree with those previously reported from other A. absinthium populations and show no essential genome organization differences between the varieties.K. K. received a master student grant of the European Union’s LLP-Socrates programme to work at the University of Barcelona, J. P. a predoctoral grant from the Spanish Government (FPI program), S. G. a postdoctoral JAE Doc contract from the CSIC, and J. V. a grant from the Universitat de Barcelona in the frame of the Erasmus programme. This work was subsidized by DGICYT — Spanish Government (projects CGL2007-64839-C02-01 and CGL2007-64839-C02-02) and by the Uniwersytet Wrocławski (grant 2600/W/IBR/06).Peer reviewe