Pr. Da Silva et al., Meiotic behavior of the Brazilian table grape cultivar Rubi (Vitis vinifera) with a high proportion of seedless berries, VITIS, 40(1), 2001, pp. 1-4
Meiotic behavior, pollen fertility and germination of the Brazilian table g
rape cv, Rubi (Vitis vinifera) were investigated; this cultivar produced di
fferent numbers of seedless berries when cultivated at two different sites:
At site A vines produced a high proportion of seedless berries while at si
te B vines produced berries with a normal number of seeds. Cytological anal
ysis of inflorescences collected from the two sites showed some meiotic abn
ormalities, the most common being related to chromosomal segregation and te
lophase micronuclei formation leading to microcyte formation in the tetrads
, Cytoplasmic channels, bridges and tripolar spindles were also observed in
some microsporocytes, Pollen fertility was high at both sites, approximate
ly 96 % at site A and 98 % at site B, The rate of pollen germination was lo
wer at site A than at site B, suggesting that the absence of seed formation
is related to pollen germination rate.