Abnormal floral development of a tobacco mutant with elevated polyamine levels

Abstract

We have previously isolated two mutant cell lines of Nicotiana tabacum defective in polyamine metabolism¹. One of these two cell lines, a temperature-sensitive mutant ts4, regenerated into light green plantlets with short internodes that could be maintained only in shoot cultures. The other cell line, Rt1, a revertant of the ts4 line, also had short internodes, but was dark green, and produced flowers with a second row of petals in place of anthers². We describe here a second example of an N. tabacum mutant with altered polyamine metabolism and floral development: in this case a cell line selected as resistant to a spermidine synthesis inhibitor regenerates to give plants producing flowers with anthers in the place of ovules.