Abstract
POLYPLOIDY may increase the flexibility of a species and consequently its ecological range by extending physiological tolerance1,2. In Lycopersicon esculentum polyploidy is reported to raise ascorbic acid levels in the fruit3 and in Valeriana officinalis the polyploids have been shown to be better adapted to certain soil types than the diploids4. Little work, however, has been carried out on chemical differences between chromosome races, so it was of some interest, when we found that diploid and tetraploid plants of Briza media, which have different geographical distributions also have distinct leaf flavonoid patterns. Diploid plants accumulate the C-glycosylflavones vitexin and isovitexin, tetraploid plants orientin and iso-orientin (Fig. 1).
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MURRAY, B., WILLIAMS, C. Polyploidy and Flavonoid Synthesis in Briza media L.. Nature 243, 87–88 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/243087a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/243087a0
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