RESUMO
Turnera sidoides is an autopolyploid complex of obligate outcrossing perennial herbs. It includes five subspecies and five morphotypes in which diploid to octoploid cytotypes were found. Based on phenetic analyses of the complex and karyotype data of polyploid cytotypes, it has been hypothesized that morphological and chromosome differentiation of T. sidoides occurred at the diploid level. To test this hypothesis, we present the first detailed chromosome analysis of diploid populations of three subspecies and four morphotypes. CMA(+)/DAPI(-) bands were restricted to secondary constrictions (except in the andino morphotype) and varied in number and position among taxa. By contrast, DAPI staining was uniform in all the materials investigated. The number and position of 45S rDNA loci were coincident with the CMA(+)/DAPI(-) bands associated with secondary constrictions. Only one pair of 5S rDNA loci was detected in all the taxa (except in subsp. holosericea), but its position was variable. The identified chromosome markers varied among the three subspecies analyzed, but they were more conserved among the morphotypes of subsp. pinnatifida. Cluster analysis of these chromosome markers supports the current taxonomic arrangement of diploids and demonstrates that structural chromosome changes would have led or accompanied the initial differentiation of T. sidoides at the diploid level.