PJB-2011-223
POSTEMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT OF CISTANCHE TUBULOSA (SCHRENK) WHIGT
CHEN QING-LIANG1,2, JIA YA-MIN2, WANG ZHI-FEN1*, SHAN CHENG-GANG1, ZHU JING-BIN1 AND GUO YU-HAI2
Abstract
The embryo of the mature seed of the parasitic angiosperm Cistanche tubulosa (Schenk) Whigt remains at pro-embryo stage. Little is known about the establishment of shoot and root apical meristems at poles of the embryonic body during postembryonic development. Thus, structure of the embryo of the mature seed and how and what the shoot and root apical meristems develop into during postembryonic development were investigated using light and dissecting stereo-microscopes. In the mature seed, the plumular pole of the embryo consists of large vacuolated, dense cells, containing starch granules and the radicular pole consists of decidedly smaller and denser cells lacking starch. During seed germination and parasitization, plumular pole cells expired without forming the apical meristem or cotyledons; while radicular pole cells formed a meristematic zone, which developed into a young parasite. We therefore conclude that:
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