Cytomixis and aberrant phenomena during meiosis in pollen mother cells of Camellia sinensis var. sinensis cv 'Fudingdabai'

Tea plant (Camellia sinensis) is an economically essential crop in China, Japan and other countries. The present study reports the meiotic behavior, including microsporogenesis of the Fudingdabai cultivar in Camellia sinensis var. sinensis. Most of the investigated pollen mother cells undergo normal meiosis processes. In contrast, a few of the pollen mother cells showed some abnormal phenomena such as cytomixis, monovalent, laggard chromosomes, unsynchronized division, micronucleus, and so on. Among which, spontaneous cytomixis is the most common phenomenon, which mainly occurred in early prophase I but also in meiosis II. Other abnormal phenomena were less than cytomixis. The results of this study laid a foundation for exploring the meiosis and cytogenetics study of the tea plants.