Fatty Acid Composition of Dry and Germinating Pollen of Gymnosperm and Angiosperm Plants

Abstract

A pollen grain is a unique haploid organism characterized by a special composition and structure. The pollen of angiosperms and gymnosperms germinate in fundamentally similar ways, but the latter also have important features, including slow growth rates and lower dependence on female tissues. These features are, to some extent, due to the properties of pollen lipids, which perform a number of functions during germination. Here, we compared the absolute content and the fatty acid (FA) composition of pollen lipids of two species of flowering plants and spruce using GC-MS. The FA composition of spruce pollen differed significantly, including the predominance of saturated and monoene FAs, and a high proportion of very-long-chain FAs (VLCFAs). Significant differences between FAs from integumentary lipids (pollen coat (PC)) and lipids of gametophyte cells were found for lily and tobacco, including a very low unsaturation index of the PC. The proportion of VLCFAs in the integument was several times higher than in gametophyte cells. We found that the absolute content of lipids in lily pollen is almost three times higher than in tobacco and spruce pollen. For the first time, changes in the FA composition were analyzed during pollen germination in gymnosperms and angiosperms. The stimulating effect of H2O2 on spruce germination also led to noticeable changes in the FA content and composition of growing pollen. For tobacco in control and test samples, the FA composition was stable.

The effect of pollen monodiets on fat body morphology parameters and energy substrate levels in the fat body and hemolymph of Apis mellifera L. workers

“…This is due to the fact that the plants have different nutrient contents 46 . Chang et al 41 and Breygina et al 47 showed that rapeseed, pear and apricot pollen play an important role in amino acid metabolic pathways and their concentrations decrease with the age of bees kept in cages. These plants are grown in China on large areas and are classified as monocultures.…”

Plant Hormone and Fatty Acid Screening of Nicotiana tabacum and Lilium longiflorum Stigma Exudates

“…Here, we report that the content of saturated FAs in both stigma exudates was very high, which strikingly distinguished it from the typical composition of plant membrane lipids, which are characterized by the predominance of unsaturated FAs [ 35 , 36 ]. So, for tobacco exudate, the UI was 0.568, and for lily, it was 0.453, that is, even lower than in the pollen coat of the same species, which was about 0.7, due to the high content of 16:0,22:0,and other saturated FAs [ 37 ]. Such low UIs show a large proportion of saturated (more than 50%) and monoenoic FAs (37–44%) and a small amount of polyenoic FAs in the lipids of both stigma exudates.…”

Light and Methyl Jasmonate Impact in the Biosynthesis of Anthocyanins and VLCFAs in the <em>Euonymus maximowiczianus</em> Aril-Derived Long-Term Suspension-Cultured Cells

“…Odd-chain VLCFAs are rare in nature and have low concentrations. For example, pollen coat of Nicotiana tabacum L. contains a significant amount of VLCFAs (about 43%), but only 1.4% of tricosanoic acid [65]. Considering the total quota of VLCFAs accumulating in the Em-D and Em-L suspension cell cultures in the stationary growth phase (Figure 5), we can assume that it is not at all small (4-5%).…”