Rooting in Leaf Petioles of Arachis for Cytological Analysis

Method of rooting in petioles was developed for leaves of Arachis plants.The objective was the development of methodology that allows the chromosome number determination for evaluation of the ploidy level in colchicine-treated branches.In order to obtain a high frequency of metaphases and chromosomes with clear morphology, roots were pretreated with 8-hydroxyquinoline combined to cycloheximide for 2 h.Root tips were stained using Feulgen dye for chromosome analysis.This method can be applied also for cytological studies of materials in which seeds are not available or cutting is not feasible.