Genome Size of Three Miscanthus Species

Published in Plant Molecular Biology Reporter, 2008

Recommended citation: Rayburn, A.L., Crawford, J., Rayburn, C.M., Juvik, J. A. (2009). "Genome Size of Three Miscanthus Species. " Plant Molecular Biology Reporter. 27(84). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11105-008-0070-3

This goes way back to when I was an undergraduate student. I applied for undergraduate research funding at the University of Illinois and received enough to perform flow cytometry to look at the genome sizes of three species in the Miscanthus genus. At that time, research into candidate C4 bioenergy species was about to explode in popularity.

M. sinensis and M. sacchariflorus were believed to have crossed to make a sterile triploid M. x giganteus. Their mean genome sizes support that hypothesis. This was a fun approach to looking at the big-picture look at the evolution of M. x g before detailed genetic and genomic information was known.

Flow cytometric histogram of M. x giganteus nuclei stained with Propidium Iodide and mixed with sorghum nuclei as an internal standard to estimate genome size.

Flow cytometry of miscanthus genome size

Download paper here

Recommended citation: Rayburn, A.L., Crawford, J., Rayburn, C.M., Juvik, J.A. Genome Size of Three Miscanthus Species. Plant Molecular Biology Reporter. 27, 184 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11105-008-0070-3

Keywords Flow cytometry Nuclear DNA content Guard cells Miscanthus