2 NEW MALE-STERILE MUTANTS OF ZEA-MAYS (POACEAE) WITH ABNORMAL TAPETAL CELL MORPHOLOGY

Two new recessive male-sterile mutants of Zea mays (Poaceae), or maize, were studied to identify the timing of pollen abortion and to examine the involvement of anther wall cell layers. The results of test crosses indicated that these mutants were not allelic with any known male-sterile mutants of maize. Light and transmission electron microscopy were used to compare pollen development in homozygous male-sterile mutants to that in fertile heterozygous siblings. In both mutants, microspores abort soon after release from the meiotic tetrad. However, the two mutations have strikingly different phenotypes. Large lipid bodies accumulate in the tapetal cells as the microspores vacuolate and die in the mutant ms25. Large vacuoles appear in both the tapetal cells and the young microspores as they begin to disintegrate in the mutant ms26. Because abnormal tapetal cell morphology is detected in both mutants, it is possible that both of these mutations affect the expression of genes in tapetal cells.