Colchicine treatment of hybrids from the interspecific cross Medicago pironae Vis. × M. daghestanica Rupr. induced the formation of three tetraploid shoots, one with 2n = 29 and two with 2n = 32, in their somatic nuclei. Their flowers had 21, 44 and 62% plasma-filled pollen, respectively. No seed was obtained from these tetraploids after selfing and intercrossing more than 1,200 flowers, indicating the presence of a built-in fertility barrier between the two species.By applying pollen from the tetraploid hybrids to alfalfa (M. sativn L.) two trispecies hybrids with 2n = 34 and 30 chromosomcs were produced. The first had 32%, the second 22% plasma-filled pollen grains. On backcrossing to M. sativa, a higher seed set was obtained with pollen from the 2n = 34 plant than from the 2n = 30 plant. Meiosis in the 2n = 30 plant was abnormal. At MI multivalents were observed, indicating that chromosomal material may be interchanged between M. pironae-daghestanica and M. sativa. Approximately half the meiocytes at AI possessed lagging chromosomes and only 6% of secondary meiocytes at AII were without disturbances.
Serial Block-Face Scanning Electron Microscopy Reveals That Intercellular Nuclear Migration Occurs in Most Normal Tobacco Male Meiocytes
