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Pak. J. Bot., 47(4): 1459-1465, 2015.

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Cytological observation of Solanum pimpinellifolium L. microspore development

HAIOU QU^1,2, Janarthini Sebastian Rylosona¹ AND LINGXIA ZHAO^1,2*

Abstract: Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most important horticultural crops worldwide, and has also been adapted as a model plant in a wide range of research disciplines. However, stamen development in tomato is less known than other model species, such as Arabidopsis thaliana and Oryza sativa L. (rice). In order to understand tomato flower development in more detail, the key goal of this study was to establish a precise correlation between visual morphological features and cytological events. To this end, we characterized a wild tomato species, S. pimpinellifolium (accession LA1585), to define stamen developmental stages using semi-thin sectioning. Based on distinct stages of flower development, S. pimpinellifolium anther/stamen development was divided into ten stages, and characteristic morphological and cytological features in stamens at each developmental stage were identified. In this way, flower characteristics and microspore development were correlated. In addition, specific cytological key events in S. pimpinellifolium were compared with those in A. thaliana and rice at corresponding stages, as well as with those in domesticated tomato (S. lycopersicum L.), and the differences are discussed.

Key words: Solanum pimpinellifolium, Cytological observation, Tomato

¹ Joint Tomato Research Institute, School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; ²Plant Biotechnology Research Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

^*Corresponding author: e-mail: lxzhao@sjtu.edu.cn; Phone: 86-21-34205775; Fax: 86-21-34205775