Viability and Germination of Wheat Pollen at Various Storage Temperatures

Year 2025, Volume: 9 Issue: 2, 104 - 110

Bekir Atar , Sultan Filiz Güçlü

Abstract

Unlike many plant species, wheat pollen cannot maintain its viability for a long time. Extending the storage period of pollen is very important for technological breeding studies and conservation of genetic resources. A limited number of studies on this subject have not yet achieved sufficient success. In this study, pollen of seven wheat cultivars (registered and landraces) of different species were stored at three storage temperatures (room temperature, +4oC and -18oC) and three different storage periods (0, 48 and 96 hours) to determine pollen viability and germination rates. Spikes (when 40-80% of flowers were seen) were cut 20 cm down and taken to the laboratory and the tests were started by placing them in containers filled with pure water. Pollen viability rates were determined by TTC staining test and pollen germination rates were determined by ‘petride agar’ method. Statistically significant differences were found between varieties, storage temperatures and storage periods. In the first test, pollen viability and germination rates were 77% and 43%, respectively. After 48 hours of storage, pollen viability decreased to 44% at 4oC, 12% at -18oC and all pollen lost viability at room temperature. After 48 hours storage at 4oC, germination rate decreased to 22%. No germination was observed at 18oC and room temperature. In the fresh test, the highest viability and germination rate was determined in Esperia variety, the lowest viability rate was determined in Kocabugday and the lowest germination rate was determined in Ç-1252 variety. At 4oC for 48 hours, the highest viability and germination rate was determined in Esperia variety, the lowest viability rate was determined in Bezostaja-1 and the lowest germination rate was determined in Kocabugday variety. Although wheat pollen gives better results in storage at 4oC compared to storage at room temperature and -18oC, it completely loses its viability and germination potential after 4 days in all environments.

Keywords

Wheat pollen , Pollen storage , Viability , Germination , Pollen staining

References

• Asseng, S., Foster, I., Turner N. C. (2011). The impact of temperature variability on wheat yields. Glob Chang Biol. 17, 997–1012. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02262.x
• Bakanoğulları, F. (2024). Analyze of the effects of possible climate change scenarios for biomass and grain yields of sunflower and winter wheat with aquacrop model in the Thrace Region of Turkiye. Tekirdağ Ziraat Fakultesi Dergisi, 21(5), 1267-1281. https://doi.org/10.33462/jotaf.1475379
• Baninasab, B., Tabori M., Yu, J., Zhang, Y., Wang, X., Deschiffart, I., Khanizadeh, S. (2017). Low temperature storage and in-vitro pollen germination of selected spring wheat accessions. Journal of Agricultural Science, 9(9), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.5539/jas.v9n9p1
• Bhat, Z. A., Dhillon, W. S., Shafi, R.H.S., Rather, J. A., Mir, A. H., Shafi, W. (2012). Influence of storage temperature on viability and in vitro germination capacity of pear (Pyrus spp.) pollen. Journal of Agricultural Science, 4, 128-135. https://doi.org/10.5539/jas.v4n11p128.
• Bheemanahalli, R., Sunoj, V. J., Saripalli, G., Prasad, P.V., Balyan, H.S., Gupta, P.K., Jagadish, S.K. (2019). Quantifying the impact of heat stress on pollen germination, seed set, and grain filling in spring wheat. Crop Science, 59(2), 684-696. https://doi.org/10.2135/cropsci2018.05.0292
• Choudhry, N., Siddiqui, M., Bi, S. Khatoon, S. (2014). Effect of seasonality and time after anthesis on the viability and longevity of Cannabis sativapollen. Palynology, 38, 235–241
• Cook, F. S., Walden, D. B. (1965). The male gametophyte of Zea mays L.: II. İn vitrogermination. Canadian Journal of Botany, 43(7), 779-786.
• De Storme, N., Geelen, D. (2014). The impact of environmental stress on male reproductive development in plants: biological processes and molecular mechanisms. Plant Cell Environ., 37, 1–18.
• Djanaguiraman, M., Perumal, R., Ciampitti, I.A., Gupta, S. K., Prasad, P. V. V. (2017). Quantifying pearl millet response to high temperature stress: Thresholds, sensitive stages, genetic variability and relative sensitivity of pollen and pistil. Plant Cell Environ., 41, 993–1007. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.12931
• Gaudet, D., Yadav, N. S., Sorokin, A., Bilichak, A., Kovalchuk, I. (2020). Development and optimization of a germination assay and long-term storage for Cannabis sativa pollen. Plants, 9(5), 665.
• Guçlu, S.F., Koyuncu, F. (2017). Effects of relative humidity on in vitro pollen germination and tube growth in sweet cherries (Prunus Avium L.). Scientific Papers Series B. Horticulture, 61, 15-20.
• Guçlu, S. F., Sarıkaya, A. G., Koyuncu, F. (2018). Pollen performances of naturally grown blackberries in Isparta-Turkey. Scientific Papers Series B. Horticulture, 62, 141-146.
• Guçlu, S. F., Oncu, Z., Koyuncu, F. (2020). Pollen performance modelling with an artificial neural network on commercial stone fruit cultivars. Horticulture, Environment, and Biotechnology, 61(1), 61-67. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13580-019-00208-7
• He, W., Xiao, Q., Pu, G., Huang, X., Li, Y., Shi, L. (2017). Effect of walnut pollen on ‘Shuangzao’ fruit quality and early fruit of several. J. Hunan Agri. Univ., 43, 266– 269
• Impe, D. (2022). Wheat pollen viability and physiological, biochemical and biophysical factors impacting pollen storability. PhD Tesis. Faculty of Natural Sciences, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University, Hannover, Germany.
• Impe, D., Ballesteros, D., Ischebeck, T., Kopnick, C., Rolletschek, H., Melzer, M., Nagel, M. (2019). Towards long-term storage of wheat pollen. Cryobiology, 91, 161.
• Impe, D., Reitz, J., Kopnick, C., Rolletschek, H., Börner, A., Senula, A., Nagel, M. (2020). Assessment of pollen viability for wheat. Frontiers in Plant Science, 10, 1588. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2019.01588
• Jagadish, S. V. K., Muthurajan, R., Oane, R., Wheeler, T. R., Heuer, S. Bennett, J., Craufurd, P. Q. (2010). Physiological and proteomic approaches to address heat tolerance during anthesis in rice (Oryza sativa L.). J. Exp. Bot., 61(1), 143–156. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erp289.
• Jayaprakash, P., Annapoorani, S., Vikas, V. K., Sivasamy, M., Kumar, J., Saravannan, K., Sheeba, D. (2015). An improved in-vitro germination medium for recalcitrant bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) pollen. Indian J. Genet. Plant Breed., 75, 446–452. https://doi.org/10.5958/0975-6906.2015.00072.3
• Jia, H., Liang, X., Zhang, L., Zhang, J., Sapey, E., Liu, X., Sun, Y., Sun, S., Yan, H., Lu, W. (2022). Improving ultra-low temperature preservation technologies of soybean pollen for off-season and off-site hybridization. Front. Plant Sci., 13, 920522.
• Jiang, Y., Lahlali, R., Karunakaran, C., Kumar, S., Davis, A. R., Bueckert, R. A. (2015). Seed set, pollen morphology and pollen surface composition response to heat stress in field pea. Plant Cell Environ., 38:2387–2397.
• Jumrani, K., Bhatia, V.S., Pandey, G. P. (2018). Screening soybean genotypes for high temperature tolerance by in vitro pollen germination, pollen tube length reproductive efficiency and seed yield. Indian J. Plant Physiol., 23, 77–90. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40502-018-0360-1
• Kanwal, M., Gogoi, N., Jones, B., Bariana, H., Bansal, U., Ahmad, N. (2022). Pollen: A potential explant for genetic transformation in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Agronomy, 12(9), 2-15.
• Khan, I., Sajjad, M. (2023). A simple method for preserving pollen viability and longevity in wheat. PREPRINT (Version 1) available at Research Square. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2580944/v1
• Khan, I., Wu J., Sajjad, M. (2022). Pollen viability-based heat susceptibility index (HSIpv): A useful selection criterion for heat-tolerant genotypes in wheat. Frontiers in Plant Science, 13, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.1064569.
• Khan, I., Naeem, M. K., Shahzad, A., Zhang, Z., Chen, J., Sajjad, M. (2024). Optimizing wheat pollen preservation for enhanced viability and in vitro germination. Agronomy, 14(1), 201.
• Koubouris, G. C., Metzidakis, I. T., Vasilakakis, M. D. (2009). Impact of temperature on olive (Olea europaea L.) pollen performance in relation to relative humidity and genotype. Environ. Exp. Bot., 67, 209–214
• Liu, X., Xiao, Y., Zi, J., Yan, J., Li, C., Du, C., Wan, J., Wu, H., Zheng, B., Wang, S. (2023). Differential effects of low and high temperature stress on pollen germination and tube length of mango (Mangifera indica L.) genotypes. Sci. Rep., 13(1), 611. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2019.05.024
• Longin, C. F. H., Reif, J. C. (2014). Redesigning the exploitation of wheat genetic resources. Trends in plant science, 19(10), 631-636. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2014.06.012.
• Masthigowda, H. M., Sharma, D., Khobra, R., Krishnappa, G., Khan, H., Singh, S. K. (2022). Pollen viability as a potential trait for screening heat-tolerantwheat (Triticum aestivum l.). Funct. Plant Biol., 49(7), 625–633.
• McCormick, S. (2004). Control of male gametophyte development. Plant Cell, 16, 142-153.
• Mosquera, D. J. C., Salinas, D.G. C., Moreno, G. A. L. (2021). Pollen viability and germination in Elaeis oleifera, Elaeis guineensis and their interspecific hybrid. Pesqui. Agropecuária Trop., 51, e68076.
• Mukti, G. (2014). Pollen storage and viability. Int. J. Bot. Res., 4, 1–18.
• Ozturk, İ. (2024). Genotype and environment effect on yield and quality parameters and stability in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars under rainfed conditions. Tekirdağ Ziraat Fakültesi Dergisi, 21(2), 324-334.
• Parrotta, L., Faleri, C., Cresti, M., Cai, G. (2016). Heat stress affects the cytoskeleton and the delivery of sucrose synthase in tobacco pollen tubes. Planta, 243, 43–63. Https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-015-2394-1
• Patel, R. G., Mankad, A. U. (2014). In vitro pollen germination-A review. Int. J. Sci. Res., 3, 304–307.
• Prasad P. V. V., Djanaguiraman, M. (2014). Response of floret fertility and individual grain weight of wheat to high temperature stress: sensitive stages and thresholds for temperature and duration. Functional Plant Biology, 41, 1261–1269.
• Prasad, P.V.V., Bheemanahalli, R., Jagadish, S. V. K. (2017). Field crops and the fear of heat stress: Opportunities, challenges and future directions. Field Crops Res., 200, 114–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2016.09.024.
• Resende, K., Prado, C., Davide, L., Torres, G. (2014). Polyploidy and apomixis in accessions of Senna rugosa (G. Don) HS Irwin & Barneby. Turkish Journal of Biology, 38(4), 510-515.
• Sita, K., Sehgal, A., Kumar, J., Kumar, S., Singh, S., Siddique, K. H., Nayyar, H. (2017). Identification of high-temperature tolerant lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) genotypes through leaf and pollen traits. Front. Plant Sci., 8, 744. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2017.00744.
• Ugarte, C., Calderini, D. F., Slafer, G. A. (2007). Grain weight and grain number responsiveness to pre-anthesis temperature in wheat, barley and triticale. Field Crops Res., 100, 240–248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2006.07.010.