A series of new cognitions on the morphogenesis of maize ( Zea mays L.) embryo have been obtained with scanning electron microscopy and semi-thin section techniques. 1. The proembryo. The proembryo from zygotic cell divisions may be divided into three parts: proper, hypoblast and suspensor. The suspensor is short and small, and only exists transiently. As to the hypoblast there is a growth belt, which promotes elongation of the hypoblast. Eventually the upper portion of the hypoblast contributes to the formation of the coleorhiza and the remainder dries up, sticking to the end of the coleorhiza. 2. The maize embryo possesses dorsiventrality and cotyledon dimorphism. During early proembryo stage, the dorsiventrality appears in the proper of the embryo. On the ventral side, the cells are small with dense cytoplasm and few vacuoles. On the dorsal side, the cells are larger with lower cytoplasmic density and have more vacuoles. During later proembryo stage, the proper develops into two parts: the ventrum and the dorsurn. The ventrum rises up from the center of the ventral side. The dorsurn is composed of the marginal area of the ventral side and the whole dorsal side of the proper. During young embryo development, the ventrum differentiates into the coleoptile, apical meristem, hypocotyl, radicle and the main part of the coleorhiza. What is more important, the emergence of coleoptile primordium and radicular initials occur at the axis of the proper, then the coleoptile primordium expands from its two ends toward left and right to form a ring, and the endogenous radicular initials expand in all directions to form a conical radicular tip. All these morphogenetic activities of the ventrum follow a bilateral symmetrical pattern. The dorsurn forms the scutellum. primordium. Then the scutellum primordium, expands rapidly toward the left, right, front and back, while thickening itself, so as to make all components originating from the ventrum become hidden in the longitudinal groove of the scutellum. Lastly, the left and ri
S-a, S-b and S-c are three loci for F1 pollen sterility in cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.). Taichung 65 (T65) is all Sj/Sj at these three loci, while its F1 pollen sterile near-isogenic lines, TISL2 (S-b), TISL4 (S-a) and TISL5 (S-c) is Sj/Sj according to their respective sterility locus. Using SSR molecular marker to detect the segregation of the allele Si and Sj in pollen calli population induced from different hybrid F1, which have different pollen sterility locus, showed that the segregation of allele Si and Sj was distorted. The distorted direction of pollen calli population in vitro was not the same as F2 population in vivo. The quantities of pollen callus carrying Sj were much more than that of carrying Siat S-a and S-c locus, the ratio of Si and Sj were 1:4.81 and 1:1.96 respectively. But the opposite tendency was observed at S-b locus, the ratio of Si and Sj being 1:0.35. At the same time, all these results were undisturbed by either culture medium or culture period.
YAO Yan LU Yong-gen LIU Xiang-dong FENG Jiu-huan ZHANG Gui-quan