CHARACTERIZATION AND LOCALIZATION OF REPETITIVE DNA-SEQUENCES IN THE ORNAMENTAL ALSTROEMERIA-AUREA GRAHAM

Three repetitive DNA sequences were isolated from a genomic DNA librar y of the ornamental Alstroemeria aurea Graham. Two repeats, A001-I and A001-II, were quite homologous and highly A. aurea-specific. A001-I w as a 217-bp sequence with several telomeric TTTAGGG repeats at the 5' end and a unique sequence of 98 bp at the other end. The third repeat, A001-IV, was a 840-bp sequence which contained two sub-sequences of 5 6 and 74 bp respectively, previously found in chloroplast (cp) DNA of tobacco and spinach and to a lesser extent in the cpDNA of maize and r ice. Repeat A001-IV was not species-specific and its hybridization sig nal was weaker than the other repeats. Fluorescence in situ hybridizat ion (FISH) revealed the A. aurea-specific repeats to be located in the heterochromatic regions of all A. aurea chromosomes. The differences in FISH pattern make them useful tools for karyotype analysis. The non -species-specific sequence A001-IV gave a dispersed signal over all th e Alstroemeria chromosomes in an interspecific hybrid. The potential u se of these repetitive DNA sequences for the study of phylogenetic rel ationships within the genus Alstroemeria is discussed.