Caryologia. International Journal of Cytology, Cytosystematics and Cytogenetics 77(4): 25-31, 2024 Firenze University Press https://riviste.fupress.net/index.php/caryologia ISSN 0008-7114 (print) | ISSN 2165-5391 (online) | DOI: 10.36253/caryologia-3014 Caryologia International Journal of Cytology, Cytosystematics and Cytogenetics Citation: Bhattacharjee, S., Sheikh, A., Nath, M., Ingtipi, W. & Rajkumari, J. D. (2024). Karyotype variability of the genus Colocasia (Araceae) of Assam, North East India. Caryologia 77(4): 25-31. doi: 10.36253/caryologia-3014 Received: October 2, 2024 Accepted: April 1, 2025 Published: July 15, 2025 © 2024 Author(s). This is an open access, peer-reviewed article pub- lished by Firenze University Press (https://www.fupress.com) and distrib- uted, except where otherwise noted, under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 License for content and CC0 1.0 Uni- versal for metadata. Data Availability Statement: All rel- evant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files. Competing Interests: The Author(s) declare(s) no conflict of interest. ORCID SB: 0000-0001-8208-935X MN: 0009-0008-0196-4975 WI: 0000-0002-9929-1375 JDR: 0000-0002-4293-0906 Karyotype variability of the genus Colocasia (Araceae) of Assam, North East India Sourav Bhattacharjee1, Afsana Sheikh1, Manabendra Nath2, Werina Ingtipi1, Jinu Devi Rajkumari1,* 1 Department of Botany, Cotton University, Assam-781001, India 2 Department of Botany, Gauhati University, Assam- 781014, India *Corresponding author. Email: jinudrajkumari@cottonuniversity.ac.in Abstract. Cytological study in four species of Colocasia (Araceae) of Assam showed a variation of chromosome numbers. Basic chromosome number of the species was reported as n= 14. Dominance of metacentric chromosomes in all the four species and symmetric karyotypes indicate the primitive evolutionary status of the species. Analy- sis of chromosome asymmetry indices indicate the karyotype homogeneity. Deviation of basic chromosome numbers in Colocasia manii Hook. f. and Colocasia fallax Schott. reflects the possible existence of aneuploidy. Presence of secondary constriction indi- cates the chromosomal plasticity. Keywords: asymmetry indices, chromosome number, Colocasia, karyotype. INTRODUCTION Araceae is a diverse plant group that comprises of 114 genera and 3750 species (Petruzzello 2018). Most of the genera under the family Araceae are predominantly found in tropical Asia (Grayum, 1990). The genus Colo- casia under the family Araceae is predominantly found in Asia and South- East Asia is the primary centre of origin of this genus (Plucknett 1979). Large number of species and ecotypes of Colocasia have been reported from North Eastern part of India (Anbazhagan et al. 2015; Angami et al. 2015). The genus comprises of tropical, evergreen, perennial herb and are impor- tant sources of food and medicine. Colocasia has been used as an integral part of cuisine by various communities of Assam, India since time immemo- rial (Baro et al. 2023). The genus is highly polymorphic. Li and Boyce (2010) reported twenty (20) species of Colocasia over the world out of which six (6) species are found in Assam (Menla et al. 2019). Several species and ecotypes under this genus have been reported by Ahmed et al. (2020) on the basis of morphological characters of corm and aerial parts of the plant. Devaraju et al. (2023) reported considerable degree of variability in Colocasia esculenta. (L.) Schott. Cytological investigations have also been reported by some work- ers on few species of the genus Colocasia (Cao and Long 2004; Senavongse et al. 2018) from different parts of the world. https://riviste.fupress.net/index.php/caryologia https://doi.org/10.36253/caryologia-3014 https://doi.org/10.36253/caryologia-3014 https://www.fupress.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8208-935X https://orcid.org/0009-0008-0196-4975 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9929-1375 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4293-0906 mailto:jinudrajkumari@cottonuniversity.ac.in 26 Sourav Bhattacharjee et al. Chromosome number and genome size are impor- tant cytological characters that significantly influence various organismal traits. Karyo-morphological informa- tion can open a new direction for evaluating evolution- ary status of different species of the genus. The chromo- some number in Colocasia is reported as 2n=28 and 42 by Wulansari et al. (2021). Variations of chromosome numbers have also been reported in the genus Colocasia (Saensouk et al. 2019). Presence of intra-specific varia- tion of chromosome numbers in Colocasia species had been reported by Coates (1988). Chromosome diversity at the intra and inter-specific level is necessary for adap- tation and survival of species in changing environmental conditions. Chromosome study and karyotype analysis have been described as important parametres to estimate the inter and intra-specific diversity of various species within a genus (Stebbins 1971; Young et al. 2012) and can be a major aid for distinguishing taxonomic groups, deducing taxonomic relatedness and evolutionary status (Lavania 1985; Lorenzo and Eroglu 2013). Chromo- somal polymorphism, potent promoters of reproductive isolation and speciation can be further correlated with differences in morphological parameters. The aim of this study is to establish the cytotaxonomic relationship among four (4) different species of Colocasia found in Assam. MATERIALS AND METHODS Four species of Colocasia Schott viz. Colocasia manii Hook. f., Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott., Colocasia fallax Schott. and Colocasia gigantea (Blume) Hook. f. was col- lected from various locations of Assam, India and were maintained under optimal conditions for root initia- tion. Newly emerging healthy roots of 5-7 mm size were treated with 0.008 M (aq.) 8-Hydroxyquinoline (oxine) for one (1) hour (Tlaskal 1979; Nair 2016). The root tips were then washed thoroughly with distilled water, treat- ed with 0.075 M KCl and were macerated in a mixture 1.5 % acetocarmine and 1 N HCl in 9:1 (v/v) ratio. The slides were observed under microscope and well separat- ed metaphase stages were photographed at magnification of 100X × 45X and proceeded with karyotyping using the software assisted imaging application. Length of long arm (L), length of short arm (S), length of chromosome (CL), total chromosome length of diploid complement (TCL), arm ratio (AR), relative length percentage (RL%), centromeric index (CI) were considered for the charac- terization of the karyotypes. The nomenclature of the chromosome type and morphology was done following the standard system proposed. Chromosome asymmetry indices was measured by considering TF% (Huziwara 1962), Stebbins’ classes A-C (Stebbins 1971), Ask% (Arano 1963), karyotype asymmetry A (Watanabe et al. 1999), intrachromosomal and asymmetry index (A1) and interchromosomal asym- metry index (A2) (Zarco 1986), co-efficient of variation of chromosome length (CVCL), co-efficient of variation of centromeric index (CVCI) and asymmetry index (AI) (Paszko 2006). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The genus showed variations in chromosome num- ber and morphology. Detailed chromosome and karyo- type parameters of four species of Colocasia are shown in Table 1, Figure 1. Colocasia manii Hook.f. In Colocasia manii Hook. f. somatic number was 2n=30 with karyotype formula 2n=30=24m+4sm+2st. Range of single chromosome length was 5.71-21.42 µm. Total chromosome length was 343.57 µm, relative chro- mosome length ranges from 2.07 to 6.23 µm. The arm ratio and centromeric index were recorded as 1.00–2.72 and 0.36–0.50 respectively. Colocasia fallax Schott Colocasia fallax Schott showed chromosome num- ber 2n= 24 and 2n=28 with somatic karyotype formula 2n=24=18m+4sm+2st and 2n=28=2M+18m+8sm respec- tively. The genotype with chromosome number 2n= 24 has total chromosome length (TCL) 683.48 µm with rela- tive chromosome length ranges from 2.18-7.15 µm. Range of arm ratio was 1.00– 2.16 and centromeric index was recorded as 0.31-0.50. While in the genotype with 2n=28 chromosome number, the total chromosome length (TCL) was recorded as 635.12 µm. The relative chromo- some length, range of arm ratio and centromeric index were 2.20-4.95 µm, 1.02-3.25 and 0.31-0.49 respectively. C. esculenta (L.) Schott In C. esculenta (L.) Schott somatic chromosome number was recorded as 2n=28 with somatic karyotype formula 2n=28= 22m+6sm. Range of single chromosome length was recorded as 11.00–34.66 µm. Total chromo- some length was 618.99 µm. The relative length of chro- 27Karyotype variability of the genus Colocasia (Araceae) of Assam, North East India mosome, arm ratio was recorded as 1.88-5.37, 1.00–2.07 respectively and centromeric index was 0.31–0.52. C. gigantea (Blume) Hook.f. Somatic number was recorded as 2n=28, 2n=30 and 2n=32 with karyotype formula 2n=28=2M+22m+4sm, 2n=30=4M+20m+4sm+2st and 2n=32=2M+22m+4sm+4st respectively. In genotype with 2n=28, single chromosome length ranges from 12.16 to 26.22 µm, total chromo- some length was 567.49 µm; relative chromosome length ranges from 2.57 to 5.40; arm ratio and centromere index were recorded as 1.00–1.57 and 0.38–0.50 respectively. For genotype with 2n=30, total chromosome length was recorded as 525.01 µm, relative chromosome length, arm ratio and centromeric index were found as 2.01– 5.53, 1.00–3.75 and 0.211–0.483 respectively. In geno- type 2n=32 the total chromosome length was 632.51 µm. Relative length of chromosome was 2.05–4.704 µm, arm ratio and centromeric index were recorded as 1.00-3.50 and 0.222-0.51 respectively. Chromosome symmetry/asymmetry index (S/AI) for all seven (7) chromosomes complement showed symmet- ric karyotypes with the range from 1.1 to 1.4 (Table 1). All seven chromosome complements showed chromo- some symmetry. Karyotype asymmetry indices Karyotype asymmetry indices of all the seven karyo- types and scattered diagrams are presented in Table 2, Figs 2, 3 & 4. Among the karyotypes the highest TF% was record- ed for C. gigantea (Blume) Hook.f. 2n=28 and lowest was also in the same genotype with chromosome complement 2n= 32. TF% and AsK% showed perfect negative corela- tion for all seven karyotypes. Except for the chromosome complements 2n=30 and 2n=32 of C. gigantea (Blume) Hook.f. TF% values fall in 41.08–45.39 which indicates symmetric karyotype. Lower value of TF% in chromo- some complements 2n=30 and 2n=32 of C. gigantea (Blume) Hook.f. were recorded as 39.69 and 39.20 respec- tively and reflected karyotype asymmetry for these two complements. A1 and A2 values ranges from 0.15–0.30 and 0.19–0.44 respectively. A1 and A2 showed negative correlation for the complements 2n=32 of C. gigantea, (Blume) Hook.f. 2n=24 and 2n=28 of C. fallax Schott. and 2n=28 of C. esculenta (L.) Schott. While for 2n=28 of C. gigantea (Blume) Hook.f. A1 showed positive correla- tion with A2. CVcl and CVci values fall in the range of 19.82–44.02 and 9.45–20.73 respectively. Highest value of Ta bl e 1. C hr om os om e pa ra m et er s o f f ou r g en ot yp es o f t he g en us C ol oc as ia . Sp ec ie s C hr om os om e nu m be r ( 2n ) K ar yo ty pe fo rm ul a Le ng th o f s ho rt ar m (µ m ) Le ng th o f l on g ar m (µ m ) Si ng le ch ro m os om e le ng th (µ m ) Re la tiv e le ng th o f ch ro m os om e (% )Ar m R at io ( AR ) C en tr om er ic in de x (C I) K ar yo ty pe Sy m m et ry / as ym m et ry (S /A I) In de x Co lo ca sia m an ii H oo k. f. 2n =3 0 24 m +4 sm +2 st 2. 14 –9 .6 4 3. 57 –1 1. 78 5. 71 –2 1. 42 2. 07 –6 .2 3 1. 00 –2 .7 2 0. 36 –0 .5 0 1. 3 C .fa lla x Sc ho tt 2n = 24 18 m +4 sm +2 st 4. 98 –2 1. 95 8. 98 –2 5. 94 13 .9 6– 47 .8 9 2. 18 –7 .1 5 1. 00 –2 .1 6 0. 31 –0 .5 0 1. 4 2n = 28 2M +1 8m +8 sm 1. 92 –7 .9 1 3. 33 –8 .5 2 6. 9– 15 .9 2. 20 –4 .9 5 1. 02 –3 .2 5 0. 31 –0 .4 9 1. 3 C . e sc ul en ta ( L. ) S ch ot t. 2n =2 8 22 m +6 sm 5. 00 –1 2. 66 6. 00 – 22 .0 0 11 .0 0– 34 .6 6 1. 88 –5 .3 7 1. 00 –2 .0 7 0. 31 –0 .5 2 1. 2 C . g ig an te a (B lu m e) H oo k. f. 2n =2 8 2M +2 2m +4 sm 5. 60 –1 2. 80 6. 56 – 13 .4 3 12 .1 6– 26 .2 2 2. 57 –5 .4 0 1. 00 –1 .5 7 0. 38 –0 .5 0 1. 1 2n =3 0 4 M + 20 m + 4s m +2 st 3. 32 –8 .4 6 3 .8 0– 13 .3 9 7. 21 –2 1. 83 2. 01 –5 .5 3 1. 00 –3 .7 5 0. 21 1– 0. 48 3 1. 3 2n =3 2 2M +2 2m +4 sm +4 st 2. 84 –5 .7 2 3. 21 –1 0. 20 6. 06 –1 5. 91 2. 05 –4 .7 04 1. 00 –3 .5 0 0. 22 2– 0. 51 1. 4 28 Sourav Bhattacharjee et al. Fig.1 : Karyotypes and ideogram of Colocasia genotypes of Assam Fig.1 : Karyotypes and ideogram of Colocasia genotypes of Assam C. manii Hook.f. (2n=30) C. fallax Schott (2n=24) C. fallax Schott (2n=28) C. esculenta (L.) Schott. (2n=28) C. gigantea (Blume) Hook.f. (2n=28) C. gigantea (Blume) Hook.f.(2n=30) C. gigantea (Blume) Hook.f.(2n=32) Figure 1. Karyotypes and ideogram of Colocasia genotypes of Assam. 29Karyotype variability of the genus Colocasia (Araceae) of Assam, North East India CVcl & CVci were recorded in 2n=30 of C. manii Hook. f. and 2n=32 of C. gigantea (Blume) Hook.f. The CVcl and CVci was evident for positive correlation and their higher range of values indicated the heterogeneous karyotypes. AI values range from 21.14 –28.21. Under the present investigation, C. manii Hook. f. (2n=30); C. fallax Schott. (2n=24 and 2n=28), C. esculen- ta (L.) Schott. (2n=28) and C. gigantea (Blume) Hook.f. (2n=28) showed asymmetric karyotype with respect to TF%, A1, A2 and AI; but showed symmetric karyotype with accordance to AsK%, A, CVcl for the complement 2n=28 of C. fallax Schott.and 2n=28 of C. esculenta (L.) Schott. The complements 2n=30 and 2n=32 of C. gigantea (Blume) Hook.f. showed symmetric karyotype for the indices TF%, CVcl, AI and asymmetric karyotype for the indices AsK%, A, A1, A2 and CVci. All the geno- types with different chromosome complements showed Stebbins’ asymmetry class 2B and 1B except for Coloca- sia manii Hook. f. which exhibited 1C. Detail chromosome morphology and karyotype analysis is the potential source to establish the relation- ship among the genotypes and also to find out the diver- gence among the genotypes. Diversity of chromosome numbers (2n=26, 28, 36, 38, 42 and 56) in the genus Colocasia and also the presence of polyploidy cytotype has been reported (Yang 2003; Wang et al. 2017). Das et al. (2015) also reported ploidy level in Colocasia spe- cies with chromosome number 2n=42 (triploid). Under the present investigation the basic chromosome num- ber n = 14 was found in all the four (4) species. Chair Table 2. Karyotype asymmetry indices of four Species of Colocasia species. Karyotype indices C. mannii Hook. f. C.fallax Schott C. esculenta (L.) Schott C. gigantea (Blume) Hook. f. 2n =30 2n=24 2n=28 2n=28 2n=28 2n=30 2n=32 TF% 43.99 43.64 41.08 41.73 45.39 39.69 39.20 ASK% 55.99 56.35 58.01 58.26 46.0 60.30 60.79 A 0.118 0.129 0.17 0.149 0.45 0.190 0.199 A1 0.20 0.216 0.28 0.245 0.15 0.28 0.303 A2 0.44 0.325 0.23 0.276 0.19 0.253 0.230 CVCL 44.02 32.55 23.58 25.62 19.82 25.33 23.04 CVCI 9.45 11.99 12.91 12.67 8.36 19.17 20.73 AI 26.56 27.13 28.21 21.93 23.69 23.21 21.14 Stebbins’ Type 1C 2B 1B 2B 1B 1B 1B T F% ASK% 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 10 20 30 40 50 CV cl CVcl Figure 2. Scattered diagram for AsK % against TF %. Figure 3. Scattered diagram for CVCL against CVCI. Figure 4. Scattered diagram for A2 against A1. 30 Sourav Bhattacharjee et al. et al. (2016) also reported genomic number n = 14 in the genus Colocasia. However intraspecific variation of chromosome numbers was found in C.fallax Schott (2n=24 & 2n=28) and in C. gigantea (Blume) Hook.f. (2n=28, 2n=30 & 2n=32) . Wang et al. (2017) reported inter and intraspecific chromosomal variation in five species of Colocasia with chromosome count 2n= 26, 28, 38, 42, and 56. Variation in somatic chromosome num- bers in mitotic cells of many angiosperm species under the genus Phalaris (Poaceae) was reported by Winter- feld et al. (2018). Karyotype analysis may be good tools for identification of intra and inter-species variation but under the present investigation, the diversity in chromo- some number within a species became a hindrance to establish the karyotype evolution with related taxa. CONCLUSION Karyotype analysis of Colocasia genotypes under present investigation showed basic chromosome number n=14. The prevalence of more metacentric chromosomes indicates primitiveness and chromosome symmetry. TF % and uniform Stebbins’ chromosome type of the spe- cies also indicate karyotype symmetry and karyotype homogeneity implying primitiveness of the genus. Lower and almost uniform values of AI, CVCL, CVCI, A1 and A2 also reflect karyotype homogeneity. Deviation of basic chromosome number from n=14 in some genotypes under two species viz. C. fallax Schott.and C. gigantea (Blume) Hook.f. gives an indication towards the occur- rence of aneuploidy and chromosomal plasticity. Ane- uploid in the species may widen the genetic variations which may lead to the formation of different diagnostic morphological and floral characters in the species. Pres- ence of secondary constriction in the certain genotypes indicates high chromosomal plasticity and their poten- tial relevance to chromosome evolution. 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