PALOMINO, G., DOLEŽEL, Jaroslav, MÉNDEZ, I., RUBLUO, A. Nuclear genome size analysis of Agave tequilana Weber. Caryologia. 2003, 56(1), 37-46. ISSN 0008-7114. E-ISSN 2165-5391.

Flow cytometric analysis of DNA content was performed using nuclei isolated from internal basal parts of young leaves in 8 varieties of Agave tequilana. The distributions of nuclear DNA content showed that more than 85% of leaf nuclei were in G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle. Nuclei with DNA content higher than 4C were not detected, indicating the absence of endopolyploidy. A. tequilana varieties lineño, azul listado, azul, moraleño, xiguin, and pata de mula were found to be diploid (2n =2x = 60). These diploid varieties displayed a 2.5% variation in 2C DNA content, which ranged from 8.304 pg for var. lineño to 8.517 pg for var. pata de mula. No statistically significant differences were detected among all diploid varieties considered. This observation demonstrates that Agave belongs to plant taxa with a stable genome size.