Behnaz Alijanpoor - Research Center of Agriculture and Natural Resource of Tehran Province, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran.
Hejraneh Azizi - Faculty of Life Sciences and Biotechnology , Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
Syamak Mashayekhi - Research Center of Agriculture and Natural Resource of Tehran Province, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran.
Moloud Alijanpoor - Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Sari, Mazandaran, Iran.

Echinops is a genus of Asteraeceae that is represented in Iran by ۷۲ species, karyotype analysis was performed on ۱۸ population of ۷ Echinops species in southern slope of Central Albourzof Iran . The taxa revealed chromosome counts of ۲n=۳۰, ۳۲, ۳۴ and ۳۶. Chromosome numbers of ۵ species are reported for the first time including E. cephalotes, E. chorassanicus, E. macrophyllus, E. robustus and E. elbursensis. There are multiple basic chromosome numbers in a few Echinops species. Differences in basic chromosome numbers point towards the possible role played by centric fusion/fission in the karyotypic evolution of the genus. The chromosomes were mainly metacentric or sub-metacentric and their size varied from ۴۱.۴۰ μm in E. cephalotes of Khojir (۱) to ۷۹.۰۲ μm in E. elbursensis of Emamzadeh Hashem population. The species occupied classes ۱A, ۱B and ۲B of stebbin's karyotype classification, indicating them to have primitive karyotype. Cluster analysis of karyotype features indicated that cytological studies didn’t support sectional classification.

Echinops, Karyotype, sectional classification, chromosome number, Iran