The Calcium Distribution In The Anther Of YunNan Purple Cytoplasmic Male Sterile Rice During Anther Development

The paraffin section and ultracytochemical methods were employed to investigate the morphological character and the changes of calcium distribution in fertile and sterile anthers of a new cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) purple rice (Oryza sativa L.) during the anther development. 1. Paraffin section observation: Normal paraffin section fixation and embedding method was used to observe the morphological difference between anthers of the cytoplasmic male sterile rice and its maintainer line. The fertile anthers had a natural morphology, while aberrant forms were found in sterile anthers such as fusion of pollen cell,degeneration delay of tapetal cells; At most of the time, the pollen of sterile line aborted at miosis stage, which means this kind of rice belongs to the Non- polleniferous male sterile rice type.2. During the development of the microspore and tapetum, potassium antimonite was used to locate Ca~2+ in fertile and sterile anthers of purple rice. In the fertile anthers, there were abundant Ca~2+ precipitates on the surface of early microspore, but not in the cytoplasm. In the tapetum, there were little calcium precipitates in the normal cytoplasm in the early stage; in the later stage, the tapetum cells underwent programmed cell death and a great quantity of calcium precipitated. In the sterile anthers, the microspore aborted at the early stage and abundant calcium precipitated in the vacuolated cytoplasm. There were abundant Ca~2+ precipitates between the tapetum and microspore, but not in the tapetum cells. The results indicate that abnormalities in the distribution of calcium between the tapetum and microspore correlate with cytoplasmic male sterility.