Abstract In this research the involvement of autophagy in the development of microsporogenesis in shepherd’s purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris) as a representative of dicotyledons and in Siebold’s plantain lily (Hosta sieboldiana) and Virginia spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana) as representatives of monocotyledons was investigated. It was shown that microsporogenesis in the studied species is accompanied by the activation of autophagy, which is associated with both the onset and completion of meiosis and corresponds to the accumulation and degradation of regulators involved in meiotic division and tapetogenesis. The presence of cytomixis in meiosis prophase may serve as additional confirmation of the regulatory role of autophagy in meiosis. It was confirmed that autophagy is involved in the functioning and degradation of the tapetum. The activation of autophagy may accompany the formation of tetrads of microspores (C. bursa-pastoris), the functioning and degradation of the tapetum (H. sieboldiana), as well as the formation of tetrads and the final degradation of the tapetum (T. virginiana). This may be because the studied species differ in the type of tapetum (secretory and plasmodial). This difference between tapetum types is not clearly diagnosed, and varieties are differentiated in terms of reorganization, intensity of autophagy, and time of degradation of the tapetum tissue within the secretory type. The obtained results allow for the conclusion that, in general, the functioning and degradation of the tapetum in the studied monocots are accompanied by more intense autophagy than in the representative of dicot.