Establishment of Plastid-Based Quadripolarity in Spore Mother Cells of the moss Funaria Hygrometrica

1988 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-126
Author(s):  
C. H. BUSBY ◽  
B. E. GUNNING
Keyword(s):  
Meiotic Prophase ◽  
Morphological Evidence ◽  
Cell Morphogenesis ◽  
Funaria Hygrometrica ◽  
Haploid Nucleus ◽  
Spindle Poles ◽  
Spore Mother Cell ◽  
Division Spindle ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Mother Cells

Development of a tetrad of meiospores is one of the most widespread examples of geometrically precise cell morphogenesis in plants. We have studied the process in the moss Funaria hygrometrica. Changes leading to a quadripolar organization of the prophase spore mother cell (SMC) start in the archesporial cells several cell generations before meiosis. The number of plastids per cell is reduced to two and these play an increasing part in subsequent mitoses and meiosis. During meiotic prophase, the plastids elongate until they enclose the peripheral nucleus. The nucleus is then drawn back into the centre of the cell as the plastids rotate and ultimately assume a mutually perpendicular configuration. The tips of the plastids thus lie at the vertices of a tetrahedron arranged around the nucleus, which itself becomes deformed into a tetrahedral shape. Quadripolarity has now been set up in anticipation of the two meiotic divisions. The first division spindle is also somewhat tetrahedral, with broad poles oriented perpendicular to one another along two opposite edges of the tetrahedron. As a consequence, the daughter nuclei are, from their inception, mutually perpendicular and elongated along the first spindle poles, ready for the second division, which places one haploid nucleus opposite each of the four plastid tips. Simultaneous cytokinesis then bisects the plastids and generates a tetrad of spores. The morphological evidence thus indicates that the plastids are involved in the development of internal quadripolarity in the outwardly apolar SMCs.

Development of the Quadripolar Meiotic Cytoskeleton in Spore Mother Cells of the Moss Funaria Hygrometrica

1988 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-137
Author(s):  
C. H. BUSBY ◽  
B.E. S. GUNNING
Keyword(s):  
Meiotic Prophase ◽  
Metaphase Plate ◽  
Plant Cells ◽  
Preprophase Band ◽  
The Other ◽  
Higher Plant ◽  
Funaria Hygrometrica ◽  
Condensed Form ◽  
Prophase Nucleus ◽  
Mother Cells

Evidence presented in the accompanying paper that plastids function as microtubule (MT)-organizing centres for development of the quadripolar cytoskeleton of pre-meiotic spore mother cells (SMCs) in the moss Funaria hygrometrica is complemented here by observations on the MT system in these cells. Early in meiotic prophase numerous MTs align progressively along the two plastids as they elongate. Concomitant with (and perhaps causal for) plastid rotation, new MT arrays grow from each tip of each plastid to both tips of the other plastid. The ‘along-plastid’ and ‘between-plastid’ arrays ultimately form the edges of a tetrahedron, enclosing the prophase nucleus. MT breakdown at the centre of each edge leaves four cones of MTs, one emanating from each vertex, located at the plastid tips. These partially fuse in between-plastid pairs to give a twisted spindle with broad knife-edge poles oriented at right angles to one another, i.e. a condensed form of the quadripolar precursor. The twist causes the metaphase plate and the subsequent phragmoplast and organelle band to be saddle-shaped, and the daughter nuclei to be elongated perpendicular to one another along the two knife edges. The tetrahedral array returns during interkinesis and again breaks down into four cones of MTs centred on the plastid tips; these, however, now become individual half spindles for the two perpendicularly arranged second division spindles. When meiosis is completed the four haploid nuclei thus come to lie at the vertices of a tetrahedron that was established by MT-mediated plastid positioning during meiotic prophase. The tetrahedral cage of MTs precedes meiosis yet predicts the planes of division, and in these two respects it is the meiotic counterpart of the preprophase band of MTs, which develops before mitosis in most higher plant cells.

Autoradiography of Soluble [2-14C]Thymidine Derivatives During Meiosis And Microsporogenesis in Lilium Anthers

1967 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. HESLOP-HARRISON ◽  
A. MACKENZIE
Keyword(s):  
Meiotic Prophase ◽  
Trichloroacetic Acid ◽  
Thymidine Incorporation ◽  
Callose Wall ◽  
Autoradiographic Method ◽  
Tapetal Cells ◽  
Mother Cells

A dry autoradiographic method suitable for locating soluble tracers has been used to follow the fate of [2-14C]thymidine supplied to detached buds and inflorescences of Lilium henryi and a related cultivar. During the interval from the archesporial phase until pachytene, the derivative (or derivatives) reaching the anther loculi moved freely into the meiocytes. Subsequently, the tracer was excluded from the mother cells until the dissolution of the tetrads. The young spores readily took up tracer in the thecal fluid upon their release, and yielded strongly localized autoradiographs. These observations are interpreted as indicating that access of materials to the meiocytes is related to the formation of cytoplasmic links between mother cells in the early meiotic prophase, and the later severance of these links through the growth of the isolating callose wall which comes to invest the tetrads. Judged from the tracer retained in preparations extracted with trichloroacetic acid, thymidine incorporation occurs mostly in the premeiotic and early leptotene period, although there is some slight evidence of incorporation later in prophase. In the tapetal cells, incorporation occurred in most of the stages tested, but there was no indication of a transfer of labelled materials from tapetum to spores in the post-meiotic period.

scholarly journals THE EFFECT OF X-RAYS ON CHROMOSOMES IN DIFFERENT STAGES OF MEIOSIS

1935 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Marshak
Keyword(s):  
Linear Relationship ◽  
Meiotic Prophase ◽  
Sensitive Volume ◽  
X Rays ◽  
Homologous Pairing ◽  
Linkage Mechanism ◽  
Pollen Mother Cells ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Protein Molecules ◽  
Mother Cells

1. Pollen mother cells exposed to low dosages of x-rays at various stages show different frequencies of chromosome abnormalities in the first meiotic anaphase. 2. Maximum frequencies of abnormalities were obtained in buds irradiated in the pachytene stage of the meiotic prophase and in the preceding mitosis. 3. These results are taken to indicate that the x-ray-sensitive portions of the chromonemata are closely approximated in pairs in pachytene and in the early mitotic prophase. The significance of this in relation to non-homologous pairing is indicated. 4. From the nature of the chromosome configurations observed it is concluded that chromonemata are two-parted when they synapse and that a chromonematic division occurs between pachytene and anaphase and during the mitotic prophase. 5. The frequencies of abnormalities show a linear relationship to dosage. 6. The diameter of the sensitive volume of the chromonema is calculated and found to approximate the diameter of some known protein molecules. 7. The linkage mechanism is found to make up about 90 per cent of the total sensitive volume which corresponds with the approximate reduction in length of the chromonema from pachytene to anaphase. 8. The relation of these sensitive volumes to the gene is discussed.

Fine Structure of Meiotic Prophase Chromosomes in Lilium Longiflorum

1967 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 88-89
Author(s):  
Peter B. Moens
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Meiotic Prophase ◽  
Lilium Longiflorum ◽  
Nurse Cells ◽  
Tomato Plants ◽  
Regional Conference ◽  
Mother Cells ◽  
European Regional ◽  
Dipteran Species

The presence of the tripartite ribbon within synapsed homologues has been reported for a large number of sexually reproducing organisms (over one hundred species, including fungi, plants, vertebrates and invertebrates). The absence of the ribbon in some species is associated with uncommon synaptic behaviour of meiotic prophase chromosomes (Drosophila melanogaster males, Drosophila melanogaster females homozygous for synapsis suppressing mutant C3G, and achiasmatic Dipteran species, reported by G. F. Meyer, 1964, Third European Regional Conference on Electron Microscopy). The tripartite ribbon, or synaptinemal complex, may therefore be assumed to be related to pairing of homologues at meiosis. The presence of the complexes and multi-complexes in non-meiotic cells such as insect obcyte nurse cells and spermatids suggests a somewhat broader function of the complexes. This is further supported by the occurrence of complexes in non-homologous paired chromosomes in the pollen mother cells of haploid tomato plants.

Development of the quadripolar meiotic apparatus in Funaria spore mother cells: analysis by means of anti-microtubule drug treatments

1989 ◽  
Vol 93 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-277
Author(s):  
C. H. BUSBY ◽  
B. E. GUNNING
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Lipid Droplets ◽  
Immunofluorescence Microscopy ◽  
Video Recording ◽  
Live Cells ◽  
Spindle Poles ◽  
Microtubule Organizing Centres ◽  
Drug Treatments ◽  
Mother Cells ◽  
Dependent Processes

Microtubule-dependent processes in Funaria hygrometrica spore mother cells (SMCs) were analysed by monitoring the effects of colchicine and oryzalin on pre-meiotic and meiotic events. The techniques used were electron microscopy, immunofluorescence microscopy of microtubules (MTs)and continuous video recording of events in treated and recovering live cells sampled at various stages of sporogenesis. Inferences drawn from previous work that the SMC plastids serve as MT-organizing centres were confirmed in so far as MT recovery in MT-depleted cells starts at the tips of the plastids. The MTs that emanate from these regions are required for positioning the plastids in the tetrahedral conformation, which defines the meiotic poles, for positioning lipid droplets in clusters at these poles and for positioning and holding the nucleus in the tetrahedral cage. If released, the nucleus can be moved by a non-MT system. Other phenomena not controlled by MTs are plastid elongation, maintenance of the tetrahedral conformation-when the MTs are absent (during divisions or as a result of drug treatment) and (probably) development of the organelle band that spans the cell between divisions I and II. In cells treated during division, when there is nonuclear envelope, the pattern of MT recovery is different: the plastids are inactive as microtubule-organizing centres (MTOCs) but MTs reappear among the chromosomes. Spindles capable of transporting chromosomes regenerate. However, the importance of interactions between nucleus and plastids is highlighted by cases in which treatmenthas resulted in: (1) movement of the nucleus out of the quadripolar plastid cage; and (2) loss of the MTs at plastid tips that normally contribute to the spindle poles; in such cases quadripolarity is lost even though functional spindles return. Plastid MTOC activity returns when the nuclear envelope isin place, i.e. in interkinesis and after telophase II.

Developmental changes in DNA methylation of pollen mother cells of David lily during meiotic prophase I

2010 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 754-759 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junjun Huang ◽  
Huahua Wang ◽  
Xiaojun Xie ◽  
Huanhuan Gao ◽  
Guangqin Guo
Keyword(s):  
Dna Methylation ◽  
Meiotic Prophase ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Pollen Mother Cells ◽  
Prophase I ◽  
Meiotic Prophase I ◽  
Mother Cells

FINE STRUCTURE OF CHROMOSOME COILING AT MEIOTIC PROPHASE IN RHOEO DISCOLOR

1972 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 801-808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter B. Moens
Keyword(s):  
Fine Structure ◽  
Nuclear Envelope ◽  
Meiotic Prophase ◽  
Synaptonemal Complexes ◽  
Pollen Mother Cells ◽  
Mother Cells

Most, if not all of the ends of synaptonemal complexes in Rhoeo discolor pollen mother cells are attached to the nuclear envelope. At least the first 4 μm of complex adjacent to the nuclear envelope is tightly coiled. Since each of the lateral elements is associated with one chromosome it means that the two homologues of the bivalent are relationally coiled in the distal segments.

scholarly journals Cytoplasniic differentiation during microsporogenesis in higher plants

2014 ◽  
Vol 50 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 3-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Dichinnson
Keyword(s):  
Meiotic Prophase ◽  
Messenger Rna ◽  
Higher Plants ◽  
Pollen Mother Cells ◽  
Cytoplasmic Rna ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Mother Cells ◽  
New Generation

Conspicuous cytoplasmic dedifferentiation in the pollen mother cells takes place early in the meiotic prophase of many plants. This event involves the removal of much of the cytoplasmic RNA. and the differentiation of both plastids and mitochondria to approaching the sole expression of their genomes. Much of the RNA removed from the cytoplasm passes to the nucleoplasm where it is utilised in the construction of a new `generation' of ribusomes. These new ribosomes are incorporated into cytoplasmic `nuclewhich disintegrate in the post-meiotic cytoplasm, restoring its ribosomes to pre-prophase levels. These changes are interpreted as evidence of a process by which the cytoplasm is cleansed of sporophytic control elements, both for the expression of the new gametophytic genome, and in the female cells of higher plants, for transmission to the new generation. The absence of control elements (presumably long-term messenger RNA) from the cytoplasm would result in the dedifferentiation observed in the organelles, and the low levels of reserves in these cells presumably results in characteristically lengthy and unusual redifferentiation of both plastids and mitochondria, once information-carrying molecules again enter the cytosol.

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