title: [Characteristics and abortion cytological pathways of male sterility of Bupleurum chinense].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the characteristics of male sterility of Bupleurum chinense and further explore the developmental period and reason of abortion for the male sterile plants.
  
  
  METHODS
  The morphological characteristics of B. chinense male sterile and normal plants were investigated and compared. The anther development process and pollen viability of two types of plants were examined by microscopic assay.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The shapes and sizes of anther and filament were different between the male sterile and the normal plants. For the male sterile plant's, the filament size was no more than 1/2 of that of normal plants and the anthers were shriveled, failed to dehisce and pollinate naturally, and the pollen grains in the anthers had no vitality. Other morphological characteristics were similar between two types of plants. The main reason leading to male sterility of B. chinense was the abnormal development of tapetum cells with two circumstances. The one is that the tapetum cells degraded early during the period of microsporocyte phase to tetrad phase and the other is that the tapetum cells proliferated with delayed degradation in the tetrad to uninucleate phase.
authors: Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100193, China.
authors: Chengmin
authors: C
authors: Yang
authors: Jing
authors: J
authors: Yu
authors: Jianhe
authors: J
authors: Wei
authors: Chun
authors: C
authors: Sui
authors: Qinglong
authors: Q
authors: Chu
mesh_terms: D029972:Bupleurum / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D051479:Plant Infertility; D011058:Pollen / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology