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Isolated pollen culture in tobacco: plant reproductive development in a nutshell

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Summary

In the past, in vitro cultures of excised anthers and isolated pollen have been used to study normal male sexual development (gametophytic development) and, conversely, to produce and study haploid plant formation (sporophytic development). For years both branches have existed side by side, without much interaction. Today, a synthesis of the two branches is possible as well as necessary. Recent advances in the technique of isolated pollen culture in the tobacco plant model (Nicotiana tabacum L.) enable the researcher to strictly control pollen development in both the gametophytic and sporophytic direction. The nutritional status of the immature pollen grain at a particular stage of development provides the trigger for its development into one of the two phases found in the alternation of generations undergone by higher plants. In particular, a hunger signal is responsible for the derepression of cell division activity and the start of embryogenesis. Pollen starvation can occur in isolated pollen cultures in sucrose-free media, in excised anthers and flowers, and, under specific growth conditions, during pollen development in vivo.

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  1. Institut für Mikrobiologie und Genetik, Universität Wien, Althanstrasse 14, A-1090, Wien, Austria

    E. Heberle-Bors

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Heberle-Bors, E. Isolated pollen culture in tobacco: plant reproductive development in a nutshell. Sexual Plant Reprod 2, 1–10 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00190112

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