A STUDY OF MEIOSIS IN A HAPLOID OF TRITICUM VULGARE VILL. AND ITS PROGENIES

Abstract

Meiosis was studied in the haploid of Triticum vulgare and in its second and third generation selfed progenies derived from pollination of the haploid with normal pollen. In the haploid, 57.6% of the metaphase cells showed one to three bivalents. This is assumed to be evidence of a degree of homology between chromosomes of the haploid set. Random distribution of univalents to the poles was apparently restricted by bivalent and secondary associations. Cells with 42 chromosomes were observed in a few instances. In one case the complement was made up of 21 bivalents. A high frequency of trivalents and quadrivalents was observed in the second and third generations. Presumably crossing over between partially homologous chromosomes, occurring in the haploid, resulted in reciprocal translocations which were transmitted to succeeding generations. Plants with chromosomal deficiency or duplication, observed in the second and third generations, probably originated from union of unbalanced gametes in first generation plants heterozygous for translocations or deficient or duplicated for one or more chromosomes.