Some Observations on Plant Karyology and Investigation Methods

Karyology deals with the structure of cell nuclei, especially chromosomes. Cytology dealing with the study of cells in terms of structure also, function is known nowadays to mean only the study of chromosomes or nucleus and made synonymous with karyology wrongly. Cytotaxonomy means the application of cytological data to taxonomy. Cytotaxonomy studies the morphological and cytological characteristics of the organism along with their chromo‐ some numbers and structures (karyotype)[1, 2]. It is a secondary discipline that reinforces the principles of plant and animal taxonomy by abiding to the phylogenetic kinships. In classical taxonomy, the plants are categorized through determining their natural kinships in accordance with their morphological characteristics. Especially, the taxonomists are advisable in connec‐ tion with chromosomes. So, often chromosome number is assumed to be the all important, if not the only, chromosome character of interest to taxonomists, but size, shape, and behavior of chromosomes may throw more light on a taxonomic problem than their number alone.