Relative Nuclear DNA Content of Rust Fungi Estimated by Flow Cytometry of Propidium Iodide-Stained Pycniospores

Abstract

Flow cytometry was used to estimate the relative nuclear DNA content of pycniospores from 85 collections of 13 species of rust fungi. For a given sample, 10,240 fluorescent events were measured. Sufficient pycniospores could be obtained from as little as one well-developed pycnial cluster. Numbers of fluorescent events plotted against intensity of fluorescence usually exhibited a single well-defined peak with coefficients of variation of 10% or less. Results confirmed and extended data for small numbers of basidiospores obtained earlier with the microscope photometer [...]