"Arabidobrassica": Evidence for intergeneric somatic hybrid nature from electron microscopic morphometry of chromatin.

The new method of species and hybrid characterization and determination by quantitative morphometry of chromatin texture in ultra-thin sections of nuclei was applied to the somatic hybrid "Arabidobrassica" and its parents, Arabidopsis thaliana and Brassica campestris. The somatic hybrid exhibits the average amount of condensed chromatin, if compared to the proportion of condensed chromatin in nuclei of the parent species. This result corresponds to similar findings in natural allopolyploids and is consistent with the assumption that "Arabidobrassica" is a true intergeneric hybrid.