The Arabidopsis genus

  • de Meaux J
  • Pecinka A
N/ACitations
Citations of this article
15Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.
Get full text

Abstract

Male meiosis in higher organisms features synchronous cell divisions in a large number of cells. It is not clear how this synchrony is achieved, nor is it known whether the synchrony is linked to the regulation of cell cycle progression. Here, we describe an Arabidopsis mutant, named tardy asynchronous meiosis (tam), that exhibits a phenotype of delayed and asynchronous cell divisions during male meiosis. In Arabidopsis, two nuclear divisions occur before simultaneous cytokinesis yields a tetrad of haploid cells. In tam, cell divisions are delayed, resulting in the formation of abnormal intermediates, most frequently dyad meiotic products, or in rare cases, dyad pollen (two gametophytes within one exine wall). Temperature-shift experiments showed that the percentage of the abnormal intermediates increased at 27 degrees C. Analysis of tam and the tam/quartet1 double mutant showed that most of these abnormal intermediates could continue through the normal rounds of cell divisions and form functional pollen, though at a slower than normal pace. The asynchrony of cell division started at the G2/M transition, with cells entering metaphase at different time points, during both meiosis I and {II}. In addition, chromosome condensation defects and mis-segregation were sometimes observed in tam. These observations suggest that the {TAM} protein positively regulates cell cycle progression, perhaps by promoting the G2/M transition. We speculate that there is a signal, perhaps {TAM}, that couples the normal pace of cell cycle progression with the synchrony of cell division during male meiosis.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

de Meaux, J., & Pecinka, A. (2012). The Arabidopsis genus. Mobile Genetic Elements, 2(3), 142–144. https://doi.org/10.4161/mge.21111

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free