The development of microspores and the associated changes in the tapetum were examined in the normal (+/+) and male-sterile, stamenless-2 (sl-2/sl-2) mutant anthers of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum). Anthers of eight comparable stages, from the microspore mother cell stage to anthesis, of both lines were processed for light microscopy. Until the formation of tetrads (stageii), there were no differences in the sporogenous tissue, but the tapetal cells of the mutant were more enlarged than the normal and had, at places, divided to form a bilayer. Later, the tapetal cells in both lines became amoeboid and had sporopollenin-like deposits. At stageiv, whereas the tapetal cells of the normal had started to degenerate, those of the mutant were intact but had large vacuoles. Also at this stage, the deposition of exine was evident in normal microspores, but it was lacking in most mutant microspores, which enlarged considerably and eventually degenerated. From stagevonwards, the normal microspores progressed from the binucleate pollen to pollen containing many vacuoles to mature pollen. In the mutant, tapetum degeneration was delayed until stagev, and later, although some microspores closer to the tapetum appeared normal, most either were empty or had large vacuoles. It is suggested that the delay in tapetum degeneration coupled with the failure of exine deposition, presumably associated with low esterase activity, is responsible for pollen degeneration in thesl-2/sl-2mutant.
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