Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Nucleus https://doi.org/10.1007/s13237-018-0235-x ORIGINAL ARTICLE Karyomorphological analysis of four species of Zingiberaceae from Thailand Kantiwa Saenprom 1  · S. Saensouk 1  · P. Saensouk 2  · C. Senakun 1 Received: 21 March 2017 / Accepted: 20 June 2018 © Archana Sharma Foundation of Calcutta 2018 Abstract Somatic chromosome numbers and karyomorphological details of for four species of Thai Zingiberaceae belonging to the genera Alpinia, Elettariopsis and Kaempferia were determined using tissue samples from root tips. The chromosome num- bers of both Alpinia siamensis and Elettariopsis biphylla were 2n = 48, for Kaempferia marginata it was 2n = 42, and that of Kaempferia rotunda was 2n = 30. We observed asymmetrical karyotypes, including metacentric (m), submetacentric (sm) and telocentric (t) chromosomes in some species. The karyotype formulae were as follows: A. siamensis 2n = 48 = 42m + 6sm; E. biphylla 2n = 48 = 18m + 26sm + 4t; K. marginata 2n = 42 = 28m + 14sm and K. rotunda 2n = 30 = 14m + 16sm. Telocentric chromosomes were observed in the 21st and 22nd chromosome pairs in E. biphylla. The karyotypes of K. rotunda and K. marginata detailed here are the frst report. The chromosome analysis shows that these species difer in the chromosome number and the total chromosome length, albeit had similar chromosome morphology and asymmetry indexes. Keywords Alpinia siamensis · Elettariopsis biphylla · Kaempferia marginata · Kaempferia rotunda · Chromosome number · Karyotype · Zingiberaceae Introduction Zingiberaceae is the largest monocotyledonous family under the order Zingiberales containing about 50 genera and more than 1600 species [4]. The members are distributed mainly in the tropics and subtropics, with their centre of distribu- tion in the Indo-Malayan region extending through tropical Africa to Central and South America [25, 27]. The centre of diversity lies in South and South-East Asia, where the three genera that comprise most of the species of this family are distributed: Alpinia, Elettariopsis, and Kaempferia. The most recent classifcation recognizes 4 subfamilies and 6 tribes: Siphonochiloideae (Siphonochileae), Tamijioideae (Tamijieae), Alpinioideae (Riedelieae, Alpinieae) and Zin- giberoideae (Zingibereae, Globbeae) [15]. The currently accepted classifcation of the Zingiberaceae includes four tribes, namely Alpinieae, Globbeae, Riedelieae, and Zin- gibereae. In Thailand, there are 26 Zingiberaceae genera comprising approximately 300 species from three tribes [16]. Many species are important as ornamental, medicinal, or timber products. Although, many studies have been conducted on the fam- ily Zingiberaceae, such as Sirirugsa [35], Eksomtramage and Boontum [7], Theilad [37], Saensouk and Jenjittikul [30], Saensouk and Larsen [31], Eksomtramage et al. [8], Saen- souk and Chantaranothai [28], Saensouk and Saensouk [32], Khamtang et al. [14] and Saensouk and Saensouk [33], but cytological knowledge is quite poor confned to chromo- some numbers only in a few genera. Among the species of the genera Alpinia, Elettariopsis, and Kaempferia for which chromosome counts have been described are A. allughas [24], A. conchigera [9], A. galanga [28], A. purpurata [8], A. malaccensis [5], A. mutica [19], A. zerumbet [6, 28, 30], E. burtiana, E. curtisii, E. smithiae [13], E. trilobum [1], * S. Saensouk surapon.s@msu.ac.th Kantiwa Saenprom saenprom@gmail.com P. Saensouk pcornukaempferia@yahoo.com C. Senakun chadaporn.sen@gmail.com 1 Walai Rukhavej Botanical Research Institute, Mahasarakham University, Kantarawichai, Maha Sarakham 44150, Thailand 2 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Mahasarakham University, Kantharawichai, Maha Sarakham 44150, Thailand