POLLEN-TUBE COMPETITION AND MALE FITNESS IN HIBISCUS MOSCHEUTOS

The stigmas of animal-pollinated flowers often capture more pollen than is needed to fertilize all available ovules, and mixed-donor pollen loads are probably common. When this is the case, variation in average pollen-tube growth rates can potentially affect the number of seeds sired by a given plant. Despite considerable interest in effects of postpollination processes on male fitness, little is known about the extent of variation in pollen performance among plants from natural populations. To examine this question in Hibiscus moscheutos (rose mallow), we conducted mixed-donor hand-pollination experiments with 39 pollen donors bearing distinctive isozyme markers. Pairs of competing donors were compared on sets of 11 to 15 recipient plants per pair. These donors often differed in the proportions of seeds they sired, with the maximum deviation from an expected ratio of 50:50 being 68:32. Furthermore, three intensively studied plants exhibited consistent trends in relative pollen performance when each was tested against (1) the same three competitors, and (2) groups of 14 competitors chosen at random from the study population. In a separate experiment, we investigated the effects of salinity stress and high soil nutrients on pollen performance. These environmental factors had anticipated effects on leaf production, flower production, and petal length, but style length and (most importantly) the number of seeds sired relative to a standard pollen donor were not affected. In summary, this study provides the strongest evidence to date that pollen-tube competitive ability varies among coexisting plants and may be an important component of male fitness in plants.     

FITC示踪在优化小麦花粉管通道转化方法中的应用

利用FITC(fluorescein is othiocyanate,异硫氰酸荧光素)标记的外源DNA对小麦进行了花粉管通道法转化,在荧光显微镜下观察了外源DNA进入小麦胚囊的情况,并初步研究了转化时间及转化溶液组成对DNA进入胚囊效率的影响。结果表明,外源DNA沿着花粉管生长过程中形成的花粉管通道进入胚囊;授粉45 min和60min进行转化外源DNA进入胚囊的几率较大,因此在此段时间开始转化较为合适;相对于TE缓冲液,将0.05%Silwet L-77和5%蔗糖作为转化溶液可以缩短DNA进入胚囊的时间,但不能提高外源DNA进入胚囊的几率。研究表明,使用FITC标记观察外源DNA进入胚囊效率的方法,可简便有效地应用于花粉管通道法转化条件的初步优化。     

Pollen-pistil interactions and early fruiting in parthenocarpic citrus

Background and Aims

An intense pollen–pistil interaction precedes fertilization. This interaction is of particular relevance in agronomically important species where seeds or fruits are the edible part. Over time some agronomically species have been selected for the ability to produce fruit without seeds. While this phenomenon is critical for commercial production in some species, very little is known about the events behind the production of seedless fruit. In this work, the relationship between pollen–pistil interaction and the onset of fruiting was investigated in citrus mandarin.

Methods

Pistils were sequentially examined in hand-pollinated flowers paying attention to pollen-tube behaviour, and to cytochemical changes along the pollen-tube pathway. To evaluate which of these changes were induced by pollination/fertilization and which were developmentally regulated, pollinated and unpollinated pistils were compared. Also the onset of fruiting was timed and changes in the ovary examined.

Key Results

Conspicuous changes occurred in the pistil along the pollen-tube pathway, which took place in a basipetal way encompassing the timing of pollen-tube growth. However, these changes appear to be developmentally regulated as they happened in the same way and at the same time in unpollinated flowers. Moreover, the onset of fruiting occurred prior to fertilization and the very same changes could be observed in unpollinated flowers.

Conclusions

Pollen–pistil interaction in citrus showed similarities with unrelated species and families belonging to other taxa. The uncoupling of the reproductive and fruiting processes accounts for the parthenocarpic ability of unpollinated flowers to produce fruit in citrus. However, the maintenance of a functional reproductive process reflects the potential to produce seeded fruits, providing a basis for the understanding of the production of seeded or unseeded fruits and further understanding of the process of parthenocarpy in other species.     

转基因抗早衰棉的获得

利用花粉管通道技术将含有抑制衰老嵌合基因PCSAG12-ipt的pBG121质粒转入早衰型陆地棉品种中棉所10号中,通过对T1代植株进行卡那霉素田间筛选、PCR检测及GUS组织化学染色,获得了12株转基因棉花。在棉花发育进入衰老时期,对转基因植株进行叶绿素和细胞分裂素含量的测定及形态观察,结果表明转基因植株的衰老得到延迟。     

EFFECTS OF DIFFERENTIAL POLLEN-TUBE GROWTH ON HYBRIDIZATION IN THE LOUISIANA IRISES

To elucidate the importance of hybridization in evolution, it is necessary to understand the processes that affect hybridization frequency in nature. Here we focus on postpollination, prefertilization isolating mechanisms using two hybridizing species of Louisiana iris as a study system. We compared the effects of differential pollen-tube growth on the frequency of F₁ hybrid formation in experimental crosses between Iris fulva and Iris hexagona. Analyses of seed production in fruits from pure conspecific and heterospecific pollinations revealed that more seeds were produced in the top half than the bottom half of fruits for all four crosses. Heterospecific pollen was applied to flowers of each species at zero to 24 h prior to conspecific pollen, thereby giving a head start to the foreign pollen. Using diagnostic isozyme markers, the frequency of hybrid progeny was examined at the level of the whole fruit and separately for the top and bottom halves of fruits. In both species, the proportion of hybrid seeds per fruit increased significantly with increasing head starts, suggesting that differences in pollen-tube growth rates affect the frequency of hybridization. In I. fulva fruits, the increase in hybrid seeds occurred in both halves of the fruits, but in I. hexagona an increase was only detected in the top half of fruits. These findings are consistent with a model that assumes attrition of pollen tubes due to the greater length of I. hexagona styles. While pollen-tube growth rate appears to be the most important factor affecting hybridization frequency in I. fulva, both pollen-tube growth rate and pollen-tube attrition appear to be important in I. hexagona.     

CONTRIBUTION OF CRYPTIC INCOMPATIBILITY TO THE MATING SYSTEM OF EICHHORNIA PANICULA TA (PONTEDERIACEAE)

Tristylous populations of the annual aquatic Eichhornia paniculata have high levels of outcrossing and intermorph mating despite being fully self- and intramorph compatible. Experimental studies of pollen germination, ???pollen-tube growth, and pollinations with mixtures of genetically marked pollen were used to determine whether postpollination processes contribute to the observed mating patterns. Differences in pollen germination were small and did not contribute to differences in pollen siring ability. The fraction of pollen tubes first entering the ovary, however, was greater for legitimate outcross pollen than for either of the other two pollen types (self or outcross illegitimate pollen) in all recipient morphs. Moreover, legitimate pollen had higher siring success when in competition with illegitimate pollen types (self or outcross) in each recipient style morph. The ranking of pollen performance for different pollen-style combinations was the same for both the pollen-tube growth and marker-gene experiments indicating that differences in pollen-tube growth rate are the principal cause of differences in pollen siring ability. Cryptic incompatibility in E. paniculata may represent a weak heteromorphic incompatibility system because the observed patterns of pollen-tube growth parallel pollen-tube growth and seed-set patterns that occur in related species with strong trimorphic incompatibility. The ability to produce mostly outcrossed progeny when pollinators are abundant, but to reliably produce seed under a variety of environmental and demographic conditions may be favored in E. paniculata because of its colonizing life history and occurrence in ephemeral habitats. Cryptic incompatibility may be more likely to occur in species subject to wide fluctuations in population size and levels of pollinator service.     

美洲拟鲽抗冻蛋白基因转化番茄的形态学与苹果酸脱氢酶同工酶检测

将带有afp基因的Ti质粒pMon(232),作为供体DNA,用花柱道和子房注射DNA的方法转化番茄品种“中蔬四号”对D1D2代进行田间抗寒性观察,发现在春季平均气温低于正常年分4．4℃条件下,有些组分田间长势明显好于对照。初步确认已获得抗寒性。对D2代转基因植株进行MDH同工酶分析,均与对照有明显差异,间接验证了外源DNA的导入,说明同工酶分析,可作为转基因植株早期筛选的生化指标。     

The evolution of fertilization modes independent of the micropyle in Fagales and `pseudoporogamy'

In contrast to a majority of angiosperms showing porogamous fertilization, several fagalean families such as Betulaceae and Casuarinaceae are known to show chalazogamy, where fertilization is effected by a pollen tube passing through the chalaza instead of the micropyle. Our developmental study of pollen-tube growth in pistils of Myrica rubra (Myricaceae, Fagales) further shows that pollen tubes reached the nucellus before the micropyle is formed by the integument. Since fertilized ovules appeared as if the pollen tube had passed through the micropyle for fertilization, we propose the new term `pseudoporogamy' to this mode. By mapping diverse modes of fertilization, dependent or independent of the micropyle, onto a phylogenetic tree of Fagales, it appears that fertilization mode evolved from porogamy to chalazogamy and then further from chalazogamy to pseudoporogamy. Possible reasons for the evolution of fertilization modes independent of the micropyle in Fagales are discussed.     

Experimental systems and a mathematical model for studying temperature effects on pollen-tube growth and fertilization in plum

Abstract. Cross and self pollen tubes were cultured in 'Victoria' plum flowers ( Prunus domestica L.) at 5, 10, 15 and 20°C. Pollen-tube lengths measured at intervals were fitted by S-shaped growth curves (logistic function) and the parameters of the curves used to derive a generalized model for pollen-tube growth based on accumulated temperatures. Above the threshold of 2.5°C, maximum growth rate was 0.34 mm per day-degree and the tubes reached half their final length at 16.6 day-degrees above 2.5°C. The model indicates that fertilization of plum flowers requires 16–20 d at a constant temperature of 5°C after pollination, but only 3–4 d at 15°C. Mathematical expressions based on the model are given for estimating pollen-tube penetration and growth rate from values of cumulated temperature since pollination, and for estimating the cumulated temperature necessary for pollen tubes to penetrate a given distance. Pollen-tube growth rates were the same in detached flowers, flowers attached to twigs, and flowers on young, grafted trees in pots. In detached flowers growth stopped before fertilization could occur, but some embryo sacs were fertilized in both the remaining treatments. Accurate pollen-tube growth assessments can therefore be made with detached flowers which are most convenient to use and can be accommodated in small incubators. Studies on fertilization, however, must use flowers on bulky and expensive grafted trees.