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MULTIPORATE POLLEN AND APOMIXIS IN PANICOIDEAE

MA GUOHUA^{1, 2*}, HUANG XUELIN², XU QIUSHENG¹AND ERIC BUNN³

Abstract: Pollen in Panicoideae has usually single pore. However, it was observed with higher frequencies of multiporate pollen (2-6 pores) in 14 species or cytotypes out of 6 genera. The observations indicated that all species with multiporate pollen showed multiple ploidy levels and all apomicts occur among multiporate pollen and multi-ploidy level species. Our studies on embryo sac and embryo development show that species diploid Paspalum notatum without multiporate pollen was engaged in normal sexual reproduction and multiple-ploidy species (Paspalum distichium, P. commersonii, P. thunbergia and Bothriochloa ischaemum) were engaged in apomixis including apospory and diplospory. There was no evidence of apomixis occurring in Panicum repens which also exhibited multiporate pollen, however, all its embryo sacs were deteriorated. The authors suggest that the occurrence of multiporate pollen originate from abnormality in microsporogenesis and is representive of morbidity and multiporate pollen may have some internal relativity with apomixis. So the presence of multiporate pollen may be used as a preliminary identification of apomixis.

¹South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China

²College of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China

³Kings Park and Botanic Garden, West Perth, WA 6005, Australia.