2017 Volume 82 Issue 3 Pages 273-278
On the basis of meiotic studies carried out presently on Inula grandiflora from Malana Valley in Kullu district, Himachal Pradesh, we here report the existence of cytomixis and intraspecific diploid (n=8) and tetraploid (n=16) cytotypes. The 4x individuals grow much taller and possess larger sized leaves and capitula. Stomata and pollen grain characters could also be employed in the segregation of the two cytotypes. The plants of 4x cytotype showed normal bivalent formation, regular microsporogenesis and high pollen fertility. Meanwhile, the diploid individuals which also grow under the same climatic conditions depicted the phenomenon of cytomixis involving chromatin transfer among two to eight meiocytes at different stages of meiosis. The PMCs involved in cytomixis showed various meiotic irregularities leading into reduction in some pollen fertility. Although the inter-cellular nuclear migration has been confined only to diploid individuals, which grow under the same environmental conditions, cytomixis seems to be a natural phenomenon controlled by some genes as suggested by earlier workers.
