In vitro Germination Characteristics of Maize Pollen to Detect Biological Activity of Environmental Pollutants

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) andBrogan & Partners are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Environmental Health Perspectives.In vitro pollen germination was examined as a method to determine the mutagenic and physiological effects of environmental pollutants on higher organisms. Results were presented indicating that mutations could be distinguished by their in vitro germination characteristics if sporophytes homozygous for the mutated allele were tested. The addition of agents directly into the in vitro medium was shown to be an effective method to assess their physiological effects. The exposure of pollen grains during the in vitro germination process to ultraviolet radiation in the B range (280-320 nm) was found to produce little or nox change in the germination or ruptured percentage but a sharp decrease in pollen tube growth after 1 hr.In vitro pollen germination appears to be a valuable method to examine the mutation types and physiological effects produced by a broad range of environmental pollutants. In fact. since in vitro germination is related to reproducion and gene transmission.the biological activity of these agents on in vitro germination. should be tested routinely to determine their possible effects on food producion and gene frequency changes in future generations.

Inhibition of in Vitro Pollen Tube Growth by Isolated S-Glycoproteins of Nicotiana alata.

“…The growth of pollen tubes in vitro is usually considerably slower than that in vivo, and reflects in part the non-ideal nature of the incubation media. It is therefore not surprising that crude extracts stimulate pollen growth when added to some incubation media; flor is it surprising that crude extracts inhibit growth in certain media, as pollen tube growth is extremely sensitive to low concentrations of many compounds (Pfahler, 1981). A critical test of the biological role of S-glycoproteins is that they should inhibit pollen growth with S-genotype specificity.…”

Pollen morphology and in vitro germination characteristics of nodulating and nonnodulating soybean (Glycine max L.) genotypes

“…In vitro germination of pollen from other crop species (Pfahler 1971;Pereira 1997) suggests that medium requirements such as optimal sucrose concentrations may vary widely within a species. Pfahler (1981) suggested that differences in in vitro pollen germination could be the result of complex interactions between the morphology and physiology of the pollen grain and the medium components. The structure and physiology of 295.3 ± 6.3 a n: Germination percentage = 100 samples; tube length = 184 µm b Probability (P) of t value = 0.0001 c Probability (P) of t value = 0.1190 the pollen grain is under genetic control and the medium composition is critical for both germination and tube growth.…”

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“…This is consistent with the previous in vitro flowering studies of Nadgauda et al 12 on bamboo and Zhang and Leung 13 on gentian. It is important to investigate in greater details the pollen produced by flowers formed under in vitro conditions 17,18 . In the present investigation, we initially germinated in vitro and in vivo pollen of common cockscomb on the medium of Mercado et al 15 as we did in Capsicum annuum 5 .…”