Different chemical, physical, and biological treatments were applied to emasculated flower buds of cotton hybrids (Gossypium hirsutum, 2n = 4x = 52) of various genotypes with the purpose of inducing haploid parthenogenesis. Of the treatments applied, the most effective chemical treatment was 0.2% colchicine in 0.2% dimethyl sulfoxide (1.22% parthenogenetic seed set), the most effective physical treatment was high temperature (2.66% parthenogenetic seed set), and the most effective biological treatment was pollination with Hibiscus cannabinus pollen (2.33% parthenogenetic seed set). In the progeny of five plants of parthenogenetic origin, chromosome number and meiotic behavior were studied. All were mixoploids at the dihaploid level and yet set bolls almost like normal allotetraploids. Chromosome numbers ranged from 12 to 56 in the root tips within plants, with a somewhat less pronounced variation between pollen mother cells. At meiotic metaphase I in pollen mother cells 89.8% of the chromosomes were associated. Of the bivalents 23.3% showed AA pairing, 18.7% showed DD pairing, and 18.4% showed AD pairing. Trivalents and higher multivalents involved 29.4% of the chromosomes, and 10.2% were univalents. Anaphase I segregation was often unequal. Yet fertility was as high as in the allotetraploid. It is possible that the second generation was formed by parthenogenesis after restitution in the embryonic mother cells.Key words: Gossypium hirsutum, cotton, parthenogenesis, mixoploidy, meiosis fertility.
Chromosome Behavior in the Pollen Mother Cells of “Shogoin-daikon”and“Nerima-daikon, ”the Horticultural Varieties of Raphanus sativus, L