Interspecific and Intergeneric Pistil - Pollen Compatibility of Banksia coccinea (Proteaceae)

1998 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 453 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. L. Maguire ◽  
M. Sedgley

Interspecific and intergeneric pollen-tube growth was investigated using controlled hand pollinations of Banksia coccinea R.Br., 35 species of Banksia L.f., and three species of the related genus Dryandra R.Br. Currently, the relationship between B. coccinea and other species groups within Banksia is unclear. Some species supported no germination of B. coccinea pollen, some supported normal pollen-tube growth and others produced pollen-tube abnormalities including thickened walls, bulbous swellings, directionless growth, burst tips and branched tubes. Control of pollen-tube growth in the pistil was imposed in the pollen presenter and upper style. There was no significant reciprocal effect on pollination success in the lower style. The results of pollen-tube compatability in the lower style indicated that B. coccinea has a closer affinity to the section Oncostylis, than the section Banksia where it is currently placed. Intergeneric crosses of B. coccinea with Dryandra species resulted in some compatibility, with one cross having low numbers of pollen-tubes in the pollen presenter and upper style region. These results indicate a close relationship between Banksia and Dryandra, which are sister genera in the tribe Banksiae, family Proteaceae.

2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine M. Cox ◽  
Stephen M. Swain

In Arabidopsis, as in the majority of flowering plants, developing seeds promote fruit growth. One method to investigate this interaction is to use plants with reduced seed set and determine the effect on fruit growth. Plants homozygous for a transgene designed to ectopically express a gene encoding a gibberellin-deactivating enzyme exhibit reduced pollen tube elongation, suggesting that the plant hormone gibberellin is required for this process. Reduced pollen tube growth causes reduced seed set and decreased silique (fruit) size, and this genotype is used to explore the relationship between seed set and fruit elongation. A detailed analysis of seed set in the transgenic line reveals that reduced pollen tube growth decreases the probability of each ovule being fertilised. This effect becomes progressively more severe as the distance between the stigma and the ovule increases, revealing the complex biology underlying seed fertilisation. In terms of seed-promoted fruit growth, major localised and minor non-localised components that contribute to final silique length can be identified. This result demonstrates that despite the relatively small size of the fruit and associated structures, Arabidopsis can be used as a model to investigate fundamental questions in fruit physiology.


1967 ◽  
Vol 54 (20) ◽  
pp. 542-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. P. J. R. Roggen ◽  
H. F. Linskens

2012 ◽  
Vol 61 (1-6) ◽  
pp. 121-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce W. Randall ◽  
David A. Walton ◽  
David J. Lee ◽  
Helen M. Wallace

AbstractEucalyptus argophloia Blakely (Western white gum) has shown potential as a commercial forestry timber species in marginal environments of north-eastern Australia. We measured early pollination success in Eucalyptus argophloia to compare pollination methods, determine the timing of stigma receptivity and compare fresh and stored pollen. Early pollination success was measured by counting pollen tubes in the style of E. argophloia 12 days after pollination. We compared the early pollination success of 1) Artificially Induced Protogyny (AIP), one-stop and three-stop methods of pollination; 2) flowers pollinated at 2 day intervals between 2 days before and 6 days after anthesis and 3) fresh pollen and pollen that had been stored for 9 months. Our results show significantly more pollen tubes from unpollinated AIP and AIP treatments than either the one-stop pollination or three-stop pollination treatments. This indicates that self-pollination occurs in the unpollinated AIP treatment. There was very little pollen tube growth in the one-stop method indicating that the three-stop method is the most suitable for this species. Stigma receptivity in E. argophloia commenced six days after anthesis and no pollen tube growth was observed prior to this. Fresh pollen resulted in pollen tube growth in the style whereas the stored pollen resulted in a total absence of pollen tube growth. We recommend that breeding programs incorporating E. argophloia as a female parent use the three-stop pollination method, and controlled pollination be carried out at least six days after anthesis using fresh pollen.


1989 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 515-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Goro OKAMOTO ◽  
Ikuo SHIBUYA ◽  
Miwa FURUICHI ◽  
Kazuo SHIMAMURA

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Biying Dong ◽  
Qing Yang ◽  
Zhihua Song ◽  
Lili Niu ◽  
Hongyan Cao ◽  
...  

AbstractMature pollen germinates rapidly on the stigma, extending its pollen tube to deliver sperm cells to the ovule for fertilization. The success of this process is an important factor that limits output. The flavonoid content increased significantly during pollen germination and pollen tube growth, which suggests it may play an important role in these processes. However, the specific mechanism of this involvement has been little researched. Our previous research found that hyperoside can prolong the flowering period of Abelmoschus esculentus (okra), but its specific mechanism is still unclear. Therefore, in this study, we focused on the effect of hyperoside in regulating the actin-depolymerizing factor (ADF), which further affects the germination and growth of pollen. We found that hyperoside can prolong the effective pollination period of okra by 2–3-fold and promote the growth of pollen tubes in the style. Then, we used Nicotiana benthamiana cells as a research system and found that hyperoside accelerates the depolymerization of intercellular microfilaments. Hyperoside can promote pollen germination and pollen tube elongation in vitro. Moreover, AeADF1 was identified out of all AeADF genes as being highly expressed in pollen tubes in response to hyperoside. In addition, hyperoside promoted AeADF1-mediated microfilament dissipation according to microfilament severing experiments in vitro. In the pollen tube, the gene expression of AeADF1 was reduced to 1/5 by oligonucleotide transfection. The decrease in the expression level of AeADF1 partially reduced the promoting effect of hyperoside on pollen germination and pollen tube growth. This research provides new research directions for flavonoids in reproductive development.


Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 249
Author(s):  
Weimiao Liu ◽  
Liai Xu ◽  
Hui Lin ◽  
Jiashu Cao

The growth of plant cells is inseparable from relaxation and expansion of cell walls. Expansins are a class of cell wall binding proteins, which play important roles in the relaxation of cell walls. Although there are many members in expansin gene family, the functions of most expansin genes in plant growth and development are still poorly understood. In this study, the functions of two expansin genes, AtEXPA4 and AtEXPB5 were characterized in Arabidopsis thaliana. AtEXPA4 and AtEXPB5 displayed consistent expression patterns in mature pollen grains and pollen tubes, but AtEXPA4 also showed a high expression level in primary roots. Two single mutants, atexpa4 and atexpb5, showed normal reproductive development, whereas atexpa4atexpb5 double mutant was defective in pollen tube growth. Moreover, AtEXPA4 overexpression enhanced primary root elongation, on the contrary, knocking out AtEXPA4 made the growth of primary root slower. Our results indicated that AtEXPA4 and AtEXPB5 were redundantly involved in pollen tube growth and AtEXPA4 was required for primary root elongation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 288 ◽  
pp. 110390
Author(s):  
Radosav Cerović ◽  
Milica Fotirić Akšić ◽  
Milena Đorđević ◽  
Mekjell Meland

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