Abstract
Cytomixis is migration of the nuclei between cells, widespread in various higher plant species. Most frequently, cytomixis takes place in microsporogenesis and is assumed to be a possible cause of unreduced gamete generation. In the present work the cytological mechanisms leading to a change in the cell chromosome number via cytomixis in tobacco microsporocytes are described. The amount of chromatin migrating between cells in cytomixis may be different, varying from a single bivalent to the whole nucleus. It is shown that a whole nucleus when migrating from one cell to another displays no signs of injury or degradation and the formed binucleated microsporocyte continues its meiotic division. If individual nuclear fragments rather than the whole nucleus migrate between cells, one or several micronuclei are formed in the recipient cell, which may contact the recipient cell nucleus. The most probable consequence of these events in tobacco microsporogenesis is the unreduced pollen formation.
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