New reports of nuclear DNA content for 407 vascular plant taxa from the United States

Abstract

Background and aims: The amount of DNA in an unreplicated haploid nuclear genome (C-value) ranges over several orders of magnitude among plant species and represents a key metric for comparing plant genomes. To extend previously published datasets on plant nuclear content and to characterize the DNA content of many species present in one region of North America, flow cytometry was used to estimate C-values of woody and herbaceous species collected in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, USA.

Methods: A total of 674 samples and vouchers were collected from locations across Wisconsin and Michigan, USA. From these, C-value estimates were obtained for 514 species, subspecies and varieties of vascular plants. Nuclei were extracted from samples of these species in one of two buffers, stained with the fluorochrome propidium iodide, and an Accuri C-6 flow cytometer was used to measure fluorescence peaks relative to those of an internal standard. Replicate extractions, coefficients of variation and comparisons to published C-values in the same and related species were used to confirm the accuracy and reliability of our results.

Key results and conclusions: Prime C-values for 407 taxa are provided for which no published data exist, including 390 angiosperms, two gymnosperms, ten monilophytes and five lycophytes. Non-prime reports for 107 additional taxa are also provided. The prime values represent new reports for 129 genera and five families (of 303 genera and 97 families sampled). New family C-value maxima or minima are reported for Betulaceae, Ericaceae, Ranunculaceae and Sapindaceae. These data provide the basis for phylogenetic analyses of C-value variation and future analyses of how C-values covary with other functional traits.

Fig. 1.

Apparent variation in DNA content among 46 taxa for which we measured multiple independent samples that differed in estimated 2C-values by >5 %. The histogram shows the binned frequencies of the logarithm of percentage differences found among samples (highest 2C-value/lowest 2C-value). Raw values range from 6 % to 618 % (Agrostis perennans). Fitted exponential decay function parameter s = 1·409 with –2 log (likelihood) = 123·6.

Fig. 2.

Comparisons among 1C-DNA amounts of 119 taxa tested in this study versus values for the same species from the Plant DNA C-values database (Bennett and Leitch, 2010).

Fig. 3.

Comparison showing 1C-values for dry and fresh tissue from 37 taxa included in this study.

Fig. 4.

Log distribution of 1C-values of the 674 plant samples included in this study (from 0·3 to 76·3 pg).