*Address correspondence to: María del Carmen Risueño. Plant Development and Nuclear Organization, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, CSIC, Velázquez 144, 28006 Madrid, Spain. e-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT The use of dihaploid plants for obtaining new varieties has been widely reported in different plant species. The regeneration of these plants is carried out by in vitro induction of ...

Cytogenetic studies were carried out on 22 accessions of Brachiaria jubata from the Embrapa Beef Cattle Brachiaria collection. One accession was diploid (2n = 2x = 18) and the remaining 21 were tetraploid (2n = 4x = 36). Among five tetraploid accessions, a specific and constant pattern of cell fusion involving only two microsporocytes was recorded. Meiosis proceeded normally from prophase I to ...

In angiosperms, mitosis and cytokinesis take place in the absence of structurally defined microtubule-organizing centers and the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. In the spindle and phragmoplast, microtubule reorganization depends on microtubule-interacting factors like the γ-tubulin complex. Because of their critical functions in cell division, loss-of-function mutations in the corres...

Triploid plants are usually highly aborted owing to unbalanced meiotic chromosome segregation, but limited viable gametes can participate in the transition to different ploidy levels. In this study, numerous meiotic abnormalities were found with high frequency in an intersectional allotriploid poplar (Populus alba × P. berolinensis 'Yinzhong'), including univalents, precocious chromosome migrat...

Three different nuclear genes encode the essential iron-sulfur subunit of mitochondrial complex II (succinate dehydrogenase) in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), raising interesting questions about their origin and function. To find clues about their role, we have undertaken a detailed analysis of their expression. Two genes (SDH2-1 and SDH2-2) that likely arose via a relatively recent duplic...

Successful anther/microspore culture largely depends on the use of microspores at appropriate developmental stages at the time of culture, which can be specific for each plant species and genotype. This study was carried out to determine the correlation between morphological characteristics, namely floral bud (FB) length and width and anther length, and specific microspore developmental stages ...

Callose is the major polysaccharide present in the callose wall of developing microspores and the growing pollen tube wall. It is also an essential component of other specialized cell walls and its synthesis can be induced by pathogen infection, wounding and environmental cues. Among the 12 callose synthase genes (CalS) present in the Arabidopsis genome, CalS5 plays the predominant role in the ...

The Cichorium intybus flower development in fertile, cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS 524) and various phenotypes carrying the 524 male sterile cytoplasm was investigated macroscopically and by light microscopy. The development was similar in fertile and in male sterile florets up to meiosis, and then it was affected in anther wall structure and pollen grain development in male sterile floret. I...

The sulphated pentapeptide phytosulphokine (PSK) was identified as a substance that promotes cell division in low-density suspension cultures and has been implicated in various aspects of tissue differentiation in plants. The peptide is derived from PSK precursor proteins that are encoded by small gene families. The physiological roles of PSK are still not clearly defined and little is known ab...

not similar phenomena, at least in part, account for some of the disagreement in chromosome numbers? A large barrel-shaped spindle is seen between the daughter nuclei during interkinesis. The tetrad nuclei become connected with one another by six spindles. No cell plates were observed during the reduction divisions. Castetter2 has recently described cell-plate-formation following both the heter...