CYTOLOGICAL BASIS FOR CYTOPLASMIC INHERITANCE IN PSEUDOTSUGA MENZIESII. I. POLLEN TUBE AND ARCHEGONIAL DEVELOPMENT.

Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) ovules were used to study the method of pollen tube formation and penetration of the nucellus, the movement of the body cell down the pollen tube and development of the archegonia. No pollination drop forms but nucellar tip cells produce a minute secretion that may initiate pollen tube formation. Pollen tubes penetrate the nucellus causing degeneration of nucellar cells in contact with the pollen tube tip. The body cell becomes highly lobed and the tube cytoplasm forms thin sheets between the lobes. This may be the mechanism by which the large body cell is pulled down the narrow pollen tube. Body cell plastids and mitochondria remain unaltered during pollen tube growth, whereas tube cell organelles show signs of degeneration. The pollen tube penetrates the megaspore wall and settles in the archegonial chamber. During pollen elongation and pollen tube growth the egg matured. Egg cell plastids were transformed into large inclusions which filled the periphery of the egg while mitochondria migrated to the perinuclear zone. The neck cells, ventral canal cell and archegonial jacket cells are described. The significance of the body cell and egg cell ultrastructure is discussed in light of recent restriction fragment length polymorphism studies of plastid and mitochondrial inheritance in the Pinaceae.