Spontaneous Occurrence of Meiotic Spindle Abnormalities in 'Long Headed Poppy' (Papaver dubium L.) from Indian Cold Regions

Abstract

SummaryThe present paper reports a case of spontaneous occurrence of an abnormal spindle behaviour during male meiosis in the tetraploid (2nϭ28) cytotype of Papaver dubium from the cold regions of India. In the affected accessions, meiotic course is perfectly normal up to MI resulting into normal oriented 14 bivalents. But during AI/TI and AII/TII spindle activity is abnormal resulting into variable number of laggards, chromatin bridges, unoriented chromosomes, micronuclei, tetrads with microcytes, and polyads. Examination of 1280 PMCs during microsporogenesis reveal that 13.28% tetrads were abnormal resulting into some pollen sterility (6.76%) and variable sized apparently fertile pollen grains. Although the cytological status of these apparently fertile pollen grains could not be ascertained but there role in producing variants in the species can not be ruled out.

Occurrence of Univalents and Abnormal Spindle Activity in the Meiocytes in <i>Impatiens devendrae</i> Pusalkar from Western Himalayas

“…Jiang et al (2009) have studied in Arabidopsis thaliana that there are some specific proteins MS1 (Multipolar spindle 1) which play a great role in spindle organisation in meiocytes. Existence of such abberrations in spindle activity in meiocytes during male meiosis in some plants of I. devendrae seem to be under the effect of some genetic factors as suggested earlier in Stigmaphyllon ciliatum (Singhal et al 1985), Papaver dubium (Singhal and Kaur 2009), Erigeron karvinskianus (Bala et al 2010), Plantago lanceolata (Himshikha et al 2010), Inula cuspidata , Vicia spp. , Astragalus cyclophyllus (Ranjbar et al 2011), Ranunculus laetus , Dianthus angulatus , Anemone tetrasepala (Rana et al 2013) and Meconopsis aculeata (Kumar et al 2016).…”

Spindle irregularities, chromatin transfer, and chromatin stickiness during male meiosis in Anemone tetrasepala (Ranunculaceae)

“…Aberrant meiotic course as a consequence of irregular spindle activity, chromatin transfer among neighbouring PMCs, and chromatin stickiness resulting in abnormal sporads and reduced pollen fertility has been reported in a number of flowering plants (Tilquin et al, 1984;Baum et al, 1992;Caetano-Pereira & Pagliarini, 2001;Mendes-Bonato et al, 2002;Risso-Pascotto et al, 2005;, 2012aKumar et al, 2008aKumar et al, , 2010Kumar et al, , 2011Kumar et al, , 2012Singhal et al, 2008Singhal et al, , 2009aSinghal et al, , 2009bSinghal et al, , 2011aSinghal et al, , 2011bSinghal & Kaur, 2009;Rai & Kumar, 2010;Gulfishan et al, 2010;Himshikha et al, 2010).…”

Syncytes during male meiosis resulting in 2n pollen grain formation in Lindelofia longiflora var. falconeri

“…A number of genotypes with different levels of abnormal meiotic behavior caused by extreme cold and xeric conditions have been evaluated in the plants of cold deserts of Pangi Valley, Chamba District, Himachal Pradesh. Already a large number of meiotic irregularities due to cold stress conditions affecting pollen size and fertility have been detected in the plants of the cold deserts of Lahaul‐Spiti and Kinnaur District of Himachal Pradesh (Kumar & Singhal, 2008; Kumar et al, 2008, 2010, 2011; Singhal & Kumar, 2008, 2010; Singhal et al, 2008, 2009; Singhal & Kaur, 2009; Kaur & Singhal, 2010). In the present study we report the occurrence of syncyte formation due to the fusion of two PMCs during the early stages of prophase I in L. longiflora , whereas the fusion of more than two cells forming syncytes have also been recorded in Brachiaria decumbens Stapf and Brachiaria jubata (Fig.…”