Abstract

Ziziphus jujube Mill is an economically important fruit tree, cultivated on marginal lands on a commercial scale, especially in China. In order to elucidate the microsporogenesis and male gametogenesis formation in Chinese jujube, a cultivar named ‘Lizao’ was employed for microscopy analysis. The results are showed that ‘Lizao’ was four ventricles in each anther and the anther wall was 4 to 5 layers. Its primary anther wall consisted of the epidermis, 1-2 layers endothecium, middle and glandular tapetum layers. The development of the anther wall conformed to the basic type. The meiosis in the microspore mother cells were belonged to a simultaneous type and most of the microspores were arranged in a tetrahedron shape in the tetrads. In the later May, the shape of pollen was a triangular germination vale with three germinal furrow and the mature pollen was of 2-cell type. Floral emergence and development lasted for 1 months-from later April to later May. Based our results, we did not find the abnormal male flower in the Z. jujube ‘Lizao’, suggesting that microsporogensis development may not be factors in the low seed production in the Z. jujube. This study provides the basis for understanding the biological mechanism regulating sexual reproduction, thus expanding the prospects for Z. jujube breeding programs and for further molecular and genetic studies of this species.

Keywords:

Floral, male gametogenesis, microsporogenesis, Ziziphus jujube Mill,

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