PHENYL MERCURY ACETATE INDUCED ALTERATIONS IN THE KARYOTYPE OF PHLOX DRUMMONDII HOOK

Abstract

The adverse effect of phenyl mercury acetate (PMA) solutions, 10-7 M, 10-6M, 10-sM, 10"'" M and 10-3 M, on the somatic karyotype of the Ml seedlings (directly treated) and M2 seedlings (untreated seedlings raised from seeds harvested from Ml plants) of Phlox drummondii Hook was analysed. A concentration as low as 10-7M of PMA could induce karyotypic changes confiiming its genotoxic potentiality. Moreover, all the solutions produced alterations in the somatic karyotype of the Ml seedlings most of which were also visible in M2 seedlings. Although, Ml treated sets were having both numerical as well as structural chromosome mosaicism, M2 'treated sets' were showing only structural chromosome mosaicism. A major effect of PMA was change in the volume of chromosome and total length and volume of chromosome complements of the cells.