CHANGES IN ALLELE FREQUENCIES IN COLCHICINE-TREATED RYEGRASS POPULATIONS ASSESSED WITH RAPD MARKERS

Abstract

shown that besides chromosomal duplication, ryegrass genotypes treated with colchicine present a significant amount of novel traits, suggesting that colchicine also has point mutagenic effects. Molecular approaches were used to evaluate diversity and relatedness in two annual ryegrass populations treated with colchicine. Colchicine treatment generated differences beyond the levels of inter and intrapopulational variability. Contrary to expectations, populations subjected to higher colchicine doses did not always contain more diversity than untreated populations. The use of Random Amplified Polymorfic DNA (RAPD) markers allowed the comparison of colchicine effects on different genome regions, which strongly support the findings at the morphological levels.