Abstract
Pollen sterility, sex balance, and floral induction of the pollen donor plants were tested for a possible relation to embryogenesis from in vitro cultured tobacco pollen (Nicotiana tabacum L. var. Badischer Burley). The pollen grains destined to become embryos in culture (P-grains) were sterile for the donor plants as judged by their staining reaction with acetocarmine and fluorescin-diacetate, and by an in vitro germination test. They were produced in high frequency in flowers which exhibited a shift in sex balance towards femaleness. Sex balance could be measured by the relative length of pistil to stamens. High P-grain frequency, high pollen sterility, and a shift in sex balance towards femaleness could be induced by raising the donor plants under short days and/or low temperature (18–15° C) as compared to long days at 24° C. Short days and/or low temperature also reinforced floral induction, revealing that the tobacco variety Badischer Burley is a quantitative short day and low temperature plant and that the variety follows the rule that conditions of strong floral induction shift sex balance towards femaleness. At 12° C and short days, contabescent flowers were formed with completely sterile anthers containing a few and mostly collapsed P-grains. Based on these results, it is now possible to predict conditions by which haploids via pollen embryogenesis might be produced in high frequency from low-yielding and recalcitrant species.
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Abbreviations
- DPF:
-
dead pollen grain frequency
- LD24:
-
long days at 24° C
- PD:
-
pollen dimorphism
- P:S:
-
ratio of pistil to stamen length
- SD15:
-
short days at 15° C
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Heberle-Bors, E. In vitro pollen embryogenesis in Nicotiana tabacum L. and its relation to pollen sterility, sex balance, and floral induction of the pollen donor plants. Planta 156, 396–401 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00393309
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00393309