Heterogeneous pollen in Chlorophytum comosum, a species with a unique mode of plastid inheritance intermediate between the maternal and biparental modes.

The majority of angiosperms display maternal plastid inheritance. The cytological mechanisms of this mode of inheritance have been well studied, but little is known about its genetic relationship to biparental inheritance. The angiosperm Chlorophytum comosum is unusual in that different pollen grains show traits of different modes of plastid inheritance. About 50% of these pollen grains exhibit the potential for biparental plastid inheritance, whereas the rest exhibit maternal plastid inheritance. There is no morphological difference between these two types of pollen. Pollen grains from different individuals of C. comosum all exhibited this variability. Closer examination revealed that plastid polarization occurs, with plastids being excluded from the generative cell during the first pollen mitosis. However, the exclusion is incomplete in 50% of the pollen grains, and the few plastids distributed to the generative cells divide actively after mitosis. Immunoelectron microscopy using an anti-DNA antibody demonstrated that the plastids contain a large amount of DNA. As there is a considerable discrepancy between the exclusion and duplication of plastids, resulting in plastids with opposite fates occurring simultaneously in C. comosum, we propose that the species is a transitional type with a mode of plastid inheritance that is genetically intermediate between the maternal and biparental modes.