Giemsa C-banding in Avena insularis Ladizinsky

The Sicilian wild tetraploid oat Avena insularis is a close relative of A. magna and A. murphyi and is more plausible than either of these two species as the immediate tetraploid ancestor of A. sterilis and the other hexaploi d oats. This report presents the C-banding karyotype of A. insularis. As in A. magna and A. murphyi, the chromosomal complement can be divided into tw o groups, one predominantly heterochromatic and the other predominantly euc hromatic. The heterochromatic chromosome group of A. insularis consists of three pairs of metacentric and four pairs of submetacentric chromosomes. Th e euchromatic chromosome group consists of one pair of metacentric, five pa irs of submetacentric, and one pair of subtelocentric chromosomes.