Polymorph Allium pallasii s.l. from monotypic A. sect. Pallasia was studied using a wide spectrum of methods and divided into two clearly morphologically, geographically, cytologically and genetically isolated species: A. pallasii s. str.—North-East Kazakhstan, Western Siberia, and the Altai Mountains; A. caricifolium—Kyrgyzstan, Northwest China, South-East Kazakhstan until Zaysan Lake in the east. Despite serious genetic differences, both species are sisters and are related to species of the A. sect. Codonoprasum (Subg. Allium). Allium caricifolium differs from A. pallasii s. str. by taller stems, dense inflorescence, and with filaments longer than perianth. The possible phylogenetic reasons for the separation of these species are discussed. A nomenclature analysis of synonyms was carried out.

The article presents data on phylogeny, genome size, and ploidy of species of the genus Kalidium Moq. in the flora of Kazakhstan. Genus Kalidium belongs to the tribe Salicornieae of the subfamily Salicornioideae of the family Chenopodiaceae and unites eight species, the main range of which covers the Iranian-Turanian and Central Asian deserts. There are four species in the flora of Kazakhstan: K. foliatum, K. caspicum, K. schrenkianum, and the recently described K. juniperinum. Populations of species of the genus Kalidium in the saline deserts of Kazakhstan occupy large areas, often forming monodominant communities. Sometimes there is a joint growth of two and very rarely three species of the genus. During the period of fieldwork (2021–2022), populations were identified in which these species grew together with a predominance, in most cases, of K. caspicum. Samples of representatives from 15 populations were collected for research. Selected plant samples were studied by flow cytometry to determine plant ploidy. Sequencing of nrITS and two chloroplast fragments were used to build a phylogenetic tree, including sequences from the NCBI database., A phylogenetic tree of species of the genus Kalidium was compiled, which takes previously published data into consideration. In the valley of the middle reaches of the Syrdarya River, tetraploid populations of K. caspicum were found. A hybrid between K. foliatum and K. caspicum was found in the Ili River valley (Almaty region, Uigur district). To identify phylogenetic processes at the intraspecific level, the SCoT (Start codon targeted) fingerprinting method was used.

В сообщении обсуждаются проблемы, возникающие при установлении стандартов в исследованиях по проточной цитометрии. Авторами предлагается к использованию ряд новых видов оранжерейных растений в качестве стандартов. Приводятся данные об относительном содержании их ДНК. Установлено, что для Ficus benjamina 2С = 1,07 пг, Euryops chrysanthemoides 2С=2,70 пг, Schefflera octophylla 2С = 4,65 пг, × Fatshedera lizei 2С = 6,34 пг, Davallia mariesii 2С = 15,37 пг, Zamioculcas zamiifolia 2С = 48,35 пг.

Comparative karyomorphological analyses of six out of the eight white-flowered species of Eranthis sect. Shibateranthis have been carried out. All studied specimens of E. byunsanensis, E. lobulata, E. pinnatifida, and E. stellata had a somatic chromosome number 2n = 16 with basic chromosome number x = 8. On the contrary, E. tanhoensis and E. sibirica had a basic chromosome number x = 7. The specimens of E. tanhoensis were diploid with 2n = 14, while the specimens of E. sibirica were polyploid with 2n = 42. Monoploid chromosome sets of the investigated diploid species had 4–5 metacentric chromosomes and 2–4 submetacentric/subtelocentric/acrocentric chromosomes. The highest level of interchromosomal asymmetry, estimated via CVCL, was found in E. byunsanensis and E. pinnatifida. The highest levels of intrachromosomal asymmetry (MCA) and heterogeneity in centromere position (CVCI) were found in E. lobulata and E. byunsanensis, while E. sibirica had the most symmetric karyotype. A multivariate PCoA analysis of basic karyotype parameters (2n, x, THL, CVCL, MCA, and CVCI) highlighted no overlap among species accessions, which was also confirmed by LDA. The average absolute monoploid DNA content (1Cx) of the 23 investigated samples of six Eranthis species varied from 9.26 ± 0.25 pg in E. sibirica to 15.93 ± 0.32 pg in E. stellata. Overall karyological affinity was highlighted between E. lobulata and E. stellata, on one side, and between E. byunsanensis and E. pinnatifida, on the other side. Interestingly, there was no significant correlation between total haploid (monoploid) chromosome length (THL) and 1Cx values in these species.

This article presents a brief review of the main plant species used as standards in flow cytometry. Their linearity was assessed by direct measurements during one year in greenhouse and field conditions. DNA content values were measured at two currently accepted values – based on the human (7.0 pg) and rice (0.795 pg) genomes. It was found that among the DNA content values of human genome-based standards, the DNA content values of Raphanus sativusand Solanum lycopersicum were not linear. Among the rice genome-based standards, deviations from linearity were found for the genome sizes of Pisum sativum, Vicia faba and Allium cepa. Our direct measurements of DNA content based on rice genome size for commonly used standards such as barley, rye, maize and many others are reported in this paper for the first time. It is found that the non-linearity is mainly related to the genome size value of the primary standard, instrumental variation and polymorphism of the DNA content of the standards. Using multiple standards, some perennial plant species were investigated, which could potentially be used as standards due to low DNA content polymorphism and ease of use. The paper examines in detail the peculiarities of the use of standards and highlights some methodological aspects that ensure the accuracy of data in plant flow cytometry.

The flow cytometry-based DNA analysis of leaf blade cells from 18 species and one subspecies of the subfamily Chenopodioideae (Amaranthaceae) revealed three histogram peaks typical for the presence of endopolyploidy. Although endopolyploidy is the most common ploidy in plants, this phenomenon was not previously found in such a large number of wild species of Chenopodioideae. It was also so far not reported for Suaeda, Dysphania and Oxybasis. Neither analysis of ploidy level by light microscopy nor flow cytometry revealed endopolyploid nuclei in root meristems. Endopolyploid cells were found in leaf blades and stems in all samples. The highest level of endopolyploidy was found in Suaeda. We also found that endopolyploidy is usually found in diploid species of Chenopodium, Dysphania, Oxybasis and Suaeda. The endopolyploidy from hexaploid samples of Suaeda tuvinica and octaploid Suaeda sibirica was not revealed.