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Occurrence of multivalents and additional chromosomes in the pollen mother cells of Allium cepa L.

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Abstract

A group of six plants of Allium cepa L., a diploid species with 2n = 16, growing in Kiharian village of Jammu province was studied for somatic and meiotic details. While the somatic cells of these plants possessed normal chromosome count, 14.75% of their pollen mother cells had 16 plus 1–4 chromosomes. These plants were also peculiar in having 12.49 and 8.78% chromosomes associating as multivalents (trivalents to hexavalents) at diakinesis and at metaphase I respectively. Segregation of chromosomes was irregular at anaphase I and pollen stainability very low. Besides, describing meiotic anomalies in detail, the mechanisms likely to be responsible for the same are discussed in the present communication.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Head, Department of Botany, University of Jammu, Jammu for providing the necessary facilities and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Govt. of India, New Delhi for the award of post-doctoral fellowship to GS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, University of Jammu, Jammu, 180 006, India

    Geeta Sharma

  2. Ravinder N Gohil, Centre for Biodiversity Studies, School of Biosciences and Biotechnology, B.G.S.B. University, Rajouri, Jammu and Kashmir, 185 131, India

    Ravinder N. Gohil

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  1. Geeta Sharma
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  2. Ravinder N. Gohil
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Correspondence to Geeta Sharma.

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Sharma, G., Gohil, R.N. Occurrence of multivalents and additional chromosomes in the pollen mother cells of Allium cepa L.. Nucleus 54, 137–140 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13237-011-0042-0

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