Chondriokinesis during microsporogenesis in plants

Abstract

Main conclusionChondriokinesis represents a highly orchestrated process of organelle rearrangement in all dividing plant and animal cells, ensuring a proper course of karyokinesis and cytokinesis. This process plays a key role in male gametophyte formation.Chondriokinesis is a regular rearrangement of cell organelles, assuring their regular inheritance, during both mitotic and meiotic divisions in plant and animal cells. The universal occurrence of the process implies its high conservatism and its probable origin at an early stage of plant evolution. The role of chondriokinesis is not only limited to segregation of cell organelles into daughter cells, but also prevention of fusion of karyokinetic spindles and delineation of the cell division plane. Thus, chondriokinesis plays an indispensable role in mitosis and meiosis as one of the various factors in harmonised cell division, being a key process in the formation of viable cells. Therefore, disturbances in this process often result in development of abnormal daughter cells. This has far-reaching consequences for the meiotic division, as emergence of abnormal generative cells impedes sexual reproduction in plants. This review is focused on microsporogenesis, because various plants exhibit a problem with sexual reproduction caused by male sterility. In this paper for the first time in almost 100 years, it is presented a compilation of data on chondriokinesis proceeding during microsporogenesis in plants, and providing view of the role, mechanism, and classification of this process in male gametophyte formation.