Cytogenetic effects induced by deposit mycoflora in Zea mays l. seeds from the collection of suceava genebank

Abstract

The purpose of our work was to study the cytogenetic effects induced by deposit mycoflora in Zea mays L. (2n = 20) seeds from the collection of Suceava Genebank. Cytogenetic effects were studied by means of classical plant chromosomes methods of study. We have observed that the values of the mitotic indexes are decreasing in accordance with the increasing of the storage age and also with the number of mycoflora species that are infesting the grains. Infestation with specific mycoflora produced a relatively large number, statistically significant by comparison to the controls, of interphasic aberrations and also of chromosomal aberrations in mitosis ana-telophase in all studied probes. Comparing our results with similar published data, we can strongly state that the cytogenetic effects induced by deposit mycoflora in Zea mays L. seeds are similar with those produced by the action of a weak mutagenic agen