| Abstract: | A single system is presented, where both genetic and epigenetic control of tumor induction can be studied at the same time. This system is offered by the amphidiploid tumorous hybrid Nicotiana glauca × N. langsdorffii, a nontumorous mutant of it and the nontumorous parent species N. glauca and N. langsdorffii. The aim of the present paper is to compare long-term in vitro cultures of tumorous (genetic and habituated), and nontumorous strains, through the characterization of their genomes according to several physico-chemical parameters. The data reported show that both qualitative and quantitative differences in DNA complexity are correlated with the tumorous transformation. Particularly, a high degree of mismatching between the DNAs of the tumorous and nontumorous hybrids and the lack, in the second genotype (nontumorous), of three DNA peaks in Ag+?Cs2SO4 analytical ultracentrifugation profile seem to support the hypothesis, suggested in a previous paper, of the presence, in the nontumorous mutant, of a gross chromosomal rearrangement, probably a deletion. Amplification and underreplication of specific sequences also seemed to be correlated with changes from the normal to the tumorous state, highly repetitive sequences being present in higher amounts in the normal strains and in the habituated N. glauca than in the case of the tumorous hybrid. Finally, DNA bound ion contents were found to be strikingly higher in tumorous than in nontumorous tissues. The results are discussed in the frame of the general hypothesis of high somatic genomic plasticity in plants. |
