Pollen Development and Its Stages in Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

By using techniques of intact fresh anther observation, isolated male cell observation and semi thin section, an extensively cytological study was conducted on the pollen development of IR36, an indica cultivar. The results showed that the wholly developmental process could be tentatively divided into eight stages, i.e. microspore mother cell formation stage, microspore mother cell meiosis stage,early microspore stage, middle microspore stage, late microspore stage, early bicellular pollen stage,late bicellular pollen stage and mature pollen stage. The experiment proved that there was not contraction stage in naturally developmental process of the microspores. During the pollen developing, the tapetal cells underwent three types of morphological changes, which help to identify the stages of pollen development.