Meiosis and pollen germinability in small-flowered anemone type chrysanthemum cultivars

Abstract

Meiotic behavior in pollen mother cells and in vitro pollen germination were examined in a sample of small-flowered anemone type chrysanthemum cultivars. Bivalent formation predominated at metaphase I in all the cultivars although some univalents and multivalents (mainly quadrivalents) were observed. Lagging chromosomes, chromosome bridges, micronuclei and polyads were observed at anaphase I/telophase I and anaphase II/telophase II. Pollen germinability ranged from 0.3 to 25.6% and was below 10% in 15 of the 22 cultivars. A significant positive correlation was established between disk floret length (tube + lobe)/style length and the frequency of chromosome bridges at anaphase II/telophase II, and negative ones both between disk floret length/style length and pollen germinability, and between the frequency of univalents at metaphase I and pollen germinability.