Microsporogenesis in male-sterile and hermaphroditic plants of nine gynodioecious taxa of Hawaiian bidens (Asteraceae)

Abstract

Microsporogenesis was investigated in hermaphroditic and male-sterile plants in nine gynodioecious taxa of Hawaiian Bidens. Normal microsporogenesis in hermaphrodites and the onset of abortion in male steriles were similar in all taxa and in a hybrid between two gynodioecious species. The early abnormal vacuolation of tapetal cells is the first visible evidence leading to premeiotic abortion of microsporogenesis in male steriles. The sporogenous cells disintegrate rapidly after the vacuolation of the tapetum, resulting in a shrunken, indehiscent anther which is composed of only the epidermal layer with some remnant cells of the endothecium and the connective at anthesis. In hermaphrodites, the tapetal cklls remain dense and undergo karyokinesis to become binucleate during meiosis I. The tapetum becomes plasmodia1 after microspores are released from tetrads and gradually disappears during pollen formation. The genetic factor($ which cause the abortion act with remarkable precision and consistency in all taxa investigated. This suggests that gynodioecy in all Hawaiian Bidens is homologous and the establishment of male sterility in Hawaiian Bidens occurred only once. The spread of the genetic male-sterile factor(s) may be the result of adaptive radiation of the original gynodioecious species or natural interspecific hybridization.