Tradescantia bracteata pollen in vitro: pollen tubes development and mitosis

Abstract

About 90 per cent of <i>Tradescantia bracteata</i> pollen germinates <i>in vitro</i> after 15 min. Mitosis starts in the pollen tube after about 3 h. The mitotic trans-formations of chromosomes within the generative nucleus are not synchronized. They involve succesively the linearly arranged chromosomes in the elongated generative nucleus. In metaphase the chromosomes are arranged tandem-like linearly along the pollen tube. The chromatides translocate in anaphase from various distances to the poles in a plane parallel to the metaphase plate. This suggests that chromosomes have individual mitotic spindles and that coordination of the chromosome transformations in the generative cell is much less strict than in a typical somatic mitosis. Starch is the storage material of pollen grains. In the vegetative cytoplasm of mature pollen grains minute reddish-orange vesicular structures are visible after staining with neutral red. They do not fuse with the vacuoles proper arising in germinating pollen grains to form the vacuolar system of the pollen tube.