Am. Chaudhury et al., GENETIC-CONTROL OF MALE-FERTILITY IN ARABIDOPSIS-THALIANA - STRUCTURAL-ANALYSIS OF PREMEIOTIC DEVELOPMENTAL MUTANTS, Sexual plant reproduction, 7(1), 1994, pp. 17-28
We have taken a mutational approach to identify genes important for ma
le fertility in Arabidopsis thaliana and have isolated a number of nuc
lear male/sterile mutants in which vegetative growth and female fertil
ity are not altered. Here we describe detailed developmental analyses
of four mutants, each of which defines a complementation group and has
a distinct developmental end point. All four mutants represent premei
otic developmental lesions. In ms3, tapetum and middle layer hypertrop
hy result in the degeneration of microsporocytes. In ms4, microspore d
yads persist for most of anther development as a result of impaired me
iotic division. In ms5, degeneration occurs in all anther cells at an
early stage of development. In ms15, both the tapetum and microsporocy
tes degenerate early in anther development. Each of these mutants had
shorter filaments and a greater number of inflorescences than congenic
male-fertile plants. The differences in the developmental phenotypes
of these mutants, together with the non-allelic nature of the mutation
s indicate that four different genes important for pollen development,
have been identified.