Quantitative karyotyping of barley chromosomes by image analysis methods

Abstract

Barley chromosomes were analyzed by the chromosome image analyzing system, CHIAS. Stained and unstained diploid metaphase spreads were automatically scanned and their locations on the glass slide were detected. With stained chromosomes, detection efficiency of good metaphase plates exceeded on average 90%. Three image parameters, length, area, and density volume, of each chromosome were defined and measured for 250 haploid chromosome plates. Of these parameters, total length and the arm ratio of the length were the most informative for chromosome identification. A quantitative idiogram of the N-banded barley chromosomes was established from numerical data of phase-contrast images and the image analysis of N-banded chromosomes.Key words: Hordeum vulgare, CHIAS, image analysis, automatic scanning, quantitative idiogram.