Chromosome fusions in cultured cells of celery

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Abstract
A 6-month-old cell suspension culture of celery (Apium graveolens var. dulce cv. Tall Utah 52-70R) exhibited both numerical and structural changes in chromosomes. Approximately 50% of the cultured cells had a normal chromosome number (2n = 22); however, 42% were hypodiploid cells (2n = 17–21). The most frequent structural change was chromosome fusion, which was observed in 44% of the cells analyzed and was highly associated with hypodiploidy. Chromosome fusions seemed to occur among any two or more of the chromosome components, but preferentially involved short arms of acrocentrics. This suggests that heterochromatic terminal ends or telomeres, particularly late DNA-replicating regions, would play an important role for inducing chromosome fusions. Furthermore, a very high frequency of fusions in the cultured cells of this study suggests that the occurrence of fusion might be a primary source of other structural changes such as translocations, duplications, and deficiencies observed in older cultures.Key words: Apium, hypodiploidy, chromosome fusion, tissue culture, celery culture.