The mitotic stages of parasitic plant, cuscutta reflexa roxb of manipur

The chromosomes movement during the somatic division in all flowering plants followed certain conservative pattern. The centromeric regions with kinetochore are the sites for spindle binding and pull towards the opposite poles. Do a parasitic plant chromosomes follow this movement? For the above query the shoot tips of parasitic plant, Cuscuta reflexa, Roxb were collected, fixed in Carnoy’s solution for 24 hours from Indian plum, Ziziphus mauritiana Lam., but the plants have found to parasite on other plants. The fixed shoots were macerated in the solution of glacial acetic and 1 N HCl and squashed and observed under the microscope. The chromosome number of the plant was 32 with monocentric chromosomes. The pattern of the movement of the chromosome was observed to be quite acquainted as in other plants. The nuclear architecture of the interphase nuclei and dividing cells are quite conventional. The patterns of prophase to cytokinesis stages are quite stable as in other angiosperms. As expected the heterochromatic content in the interphase nuclei known as chromocenters were huge and distinct. The shoots of 3 cm to 7 cm could be utilized for mitotic studies. The future works are to determine the chromatin organization of the plant and study the germinal chromosomes and compare them with the other species.