Anther Morphological Development and Stage Determination in Triticum aestivum

Abstract

Anther development progresses through 15 distinct developmental stages in wheat, and accurate determination of anther developmental stages is essential in anther and pollen studies. A detailed outline of the development of the wheat anther through its entire developmental program, including the 15 distinct morphological stages, is presented. In bread wheat (Triticum aestivum), anther developmental stages were correlated with five measurements, namely auricle distance, spike length, spikelet length, anther length and anther width. Spike length and auricle distance were shown to be suitable for rapid anther staging within cultivars. Anther length is an accurate measurement in determining anther stages and may be applicable for use between cultivars. Tapetal Programmed Cell Death (PCD) in wheat begins between late tetrad stage (stage 8) and the early young microspore stage (stage 9) of anther development. Tapetal PCD continues until the vacuolate pollen stage (stage 11), at which point the tapetum fully degrades. The timing of tapetal PCD initiation is slightly delayed compared to that in rice, but is two stages earlier than in the model dicot Arabidopsis. The MYB80 gene, which encodes a transcription factor regulating the timing of tapetal PCD, reaches its peak expression at the onset of tapetal PCD in wheat.

Low temperature‐induced aberrations in male and female reproductive organ development cause flower abortion in chickpea

“…This method will provide a convenient tool for assessing anther development stages in chickpea without anther sectioning. Similar to present study, spikelet length as well as anther length in wheat correlated with anther development stages (Browne et al, ). The flower and anther development stages will form the basis to identify gene regulatory networks in chickpea floral organ differentiation and development including anther and pollen development.…”

“…The nomenclature of first stage (Lobe formation stage) as Stage 4 was based on the assumption that earlier developmental stages (Stages 1 to 3) might be similar to those in A. thaliana , wheat, and cotton. This assumption originated from the fact that anther development in chickpea (present study) was almost similar to Arabidopsis , cotton, wheat, and rice (Browne et al, ; Sanders et al, ; Xu, Iacuone, Li, & Parish, ; Zhang & Wilson, ). The microsporogenesis occurred during Stages 4 to 7, meiosis (I and II) during Stages 5 to 6, microgametogenesis during Stages 8 to 12, anther dehiscence at Stage 13 and senescence at Stage 14.…”

“…Anther development in chickpea was almost similar to that in Arabidopsis , cotton, rice, and wheat (Browne et al, ; Sanders et al, ; Xu et al, ; Zhang & Wilson, ). The names of anther development stages described in this study were adopted from Browne et al (, wheat) and were modified to describe chickpea anther development. We also described a non‐destructive and cost‐effective method based on flower length to predict anther development stages in chickpea.…”

“…The nomenclature of first stage (Lobe formation stage) as Stage 4 was based on the assumption that earlier developmental stages (Stages 1 to 3) might be similar to those in A. thaliana, wheat, and cotton. This assumption originated from the fact that anther development in chickpea (present study) was almost similar to Arabidopsis, cotton, wheat, and rice(Browne et al, 2018;Sanders et al, 1999;Xu, Iacuone, Li, &…”

“…Similarly, a preliminary framework on pollen development in chickpea was described by Clarke and Siddique (2004). Significant progress has been made in understanding flower and anther development in model plant Arabidopsis (Sanders et al, 1999;Smyth, John, Bowman, & Meyero witz, 1990) as well as in some other crops such as tomato (Brukhin, Hernould, Gonzalez, Chevalier, & Mouras, 2003 for flower) and wheat (Browne, Iacuone, Li, Dolferus, & Parish, 2018, for anther). The development landmarks described in these studies can form the basis to describe flower and anther development stages in chickpea.…”