MEIOTIC IRREGULARITIES CAUSED BY INTERACTING STERILITY GENES IN CULTIVATED SAFFLOWER (CARTHAMUS TINCTORIUS)

Abstract

Microsporogenesis was studied in the male-female sterile F2 segregants of a safflower cross involving 'US-10' and '57-147' cuitivars and was compared with normal meiosis in the F1 hybrids. In the microspores of the sterile plants contraction of chromosomes during prophase was irregular and patchy and they did not stain well with acetocarmine. At MI, most of the 24 chromosomes tended to stick to each other at random resulting in the formation of several chromosome bridges during AI. Multipolar meiotic divisions were observed. The second division was rarely seen. Apparently, meiosis ends with a multipolar AI separation and with the formation of 3- to 9-celled "quartets" which later develop nonfunctional pollen grains. The onset of meiosis in sterile plants was delayed and microsporogenesis subsequently progressed at a much slower rate than in fertile F1 hybrids. Three interacting nuclear genes appear to cause male-female sterility and affect microsporogenesis by interfering with some component essential for normal meiosis.