Intracellular RNA during microsporogenesis in plants: Texus baccata as a model system

Abstract

The fluorescent proble Acridine Orange has provided valuable information about changes in levels of insoluble RNA during meiosis in pollen mother cells of <em>Taxus baccata</em>, in which prophase is unusually prolonged. By combining the data offered by fluorescence microscopy with microdensitometry it has been possible to measure changes in the amounts of RNA within cytoplasm. nucleus and nucleolus individually. The data are generally in line with those arising from other techniques, but lend themselves to a wholly original interpretation of the controlling events in meiosis.