Abstract

Polyploidy plays an important role in plant evolution and constitutes an important mechanism of diversification and creation of genetic variability. Artificial polyploidy can be induced using the colchicine. The aim of this study was to determine theTrigonella foenum-greacum (2n= 16) population which resists better to colchicine treatment and which has the highest rate of polyploid formation among 38 populations collected from different Tunisian regions. The comparative study between treated and control plants showed significant increases (p < 0.05) for the parameters survival rate, rate of malformed leaves appearance, stem height and seeds number by pod. The 38 treated populations showed significant variations (p < 0.05) between them for the parameters survival rate, branches number, stem height and seeds number by pod. Results also showed that treatment of the shoot meristem by colchicine allowed to obtain diploid (2n= 16) and mixoploid plants having mixoploid branches (4n = 32 and 2n= 16) and branches entirely tetraploid (4n = 32). The obtained rate of mixoploidy was 65.79% of treated plants. Among the 38 analyzed fenugreek populations, the population 15 of Menzel Temime presented the highest rate of mixoploids formation and survival rate to colchicine treatment.

Key words: Fenugreek, induction of chromosome doubling, mixoploidy, colchicine, Tunisia.