Relationships between pollen histochemistry, pollen grain number, ovule number and pollinators in Phyllanthaceae

2007 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Yongquan
Euphytica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 218 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Guo ◽  
Bao-Luo Ma ◽  
Neil B. McLaughlin ◽  
Yajun Gao ◽  
Xiaoming Wu ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Guo ◽  
Bao-Luo Ma ◽  
Neil B. McLaughlin ◽  
Yajun gao ◽  
Xiaoming Wu ◽  
...  

Abstract While no significant differences in initial ovule number were found among oilseed rape genotypes, there was a large variation in effective ovule number (EON), which determines the final seeds per silique (SPS), a critical component of yield. In this study, we selected 18 oilseed rape genotypes with contrasting nitrogen utilization efficiency (NUtE) to unravel the main factors responsible for different EON and determine the critical period of EON formation under both a field and a pot experiments from 2016-2018. The high NUtE genotypes displayed significantly higher NUtE by 14.3%, along with greater yield per plant (29.4%) and SPS (21.1%) than the low NUtE genotypes. The greater productivity of the high NUtE genotypes was associated with 44.1% higher pollen grain number, 23.5% greater pollen viability, and 39.3% lower ovule abortion rate, compared to the low NUtE genotypes. In addition, the heart stage was the critical ovule development period for delineating the variability of EON among contrasting NUtE oilseed rape genotypes, when the high NUtE genotypes displayed higher silique net photosynthetic rate, surface area, biomass, and RNA expression levels. Taken together, this study indicated the pollen grain number, pollen viability and ovule abortion rate contributed to the final variation in EON and the heart stage was the critical period of determining the EON differences among contrasting NUtE genotypes. Increasing pollen grain number and pollen viability, and decreasing ovule abortion rate before heart stage should be the prerequisite for breeders to improve yield and NUtE of oilseed rape genotypes.


2015 ◽  
Vol 128 (5) ◽  
pp. 953-964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vy Nguyen ◽  
Delphine Fleury ◽  
Andy Timmins ◽  
Hamid Laga ◽  
Matthew Hayden ◽  
...  

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 5433-5449 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Hader ◽  
T. P. Wright ◽  
M. D. Petters

Abstract. Recent studies have suggested that the ice-nucleating ability of some types of pollen is derived from non-proteinaceous macromolecules. These macromolecules may become dispersed by the rupturing of the pollen grain during wetting and drying cycles in the atmosphere. If true, this mechanism might prove to be a significant source of ice nuclei (IN) concentrations when pollen is present. Here we test this hypothesis by measuring ambient IN concentrations from the beginning to the end of the 2013 pollen season in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. Air samples were collected using a swirling aerosol collector twice per week and the solutions were analysed for ice nuclei activity using a droplet freezing assay. Rainwater samples were collected at times when pollen grain number concentrations were near their maximum value and analysed with the drop-freezing assay to compare the potentially enhanced IN concentrations measured near the ground with IN concentrations found aloft. Ambient ice nuclei spectra, defined as the number of ice nuclei per volume of air as a function of temperature, are inferred from the aerosol collector solutions. No general trend was observed between ambient pollen grain counts and observed IN concentrations, suggesting that ice nuclei multiplication via pollen grain rupturing and subsequent release of macromolecules was not prevalent for the pollen types and meteorological conditions typically encountered in the southeastern US. A serendipitously sampled collection after a downpour provided evidence for a rain-induced IN burst with an observed IN concentration of approximately 30 per litre, a 30-fold increase over background concentrations at −20 °C. The onset temperature of freezing for these particles was approximately −12 °C, suggesting that the ice-nucleating particles were biological in origin.


2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (No. 2) ◽  
pp. 61-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorsaf Allel ◽  
Anis BenAmar ◽  
Mounawer Badri ◽  
Chedly Abdelly

Soil salinity is one of the main factors limiting cereal productivity in worldwide agriculture. Exploitation of natural variation in local barley germplasm is an effective approach to overcome yield losses. Three gene pools of North African Hordeum vulgare L. grown in Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt were evaluated at the reproductive stage under control and saline conditions. Assessment of stress tolerance was monitored using morphological, yield-related traits and phenological parameters of reproductive organs showing significant genetic variation. High heritability and positive relationships were found suggesting that some traits associated with salt tolerance could be used as selection criteria. The phenotypic correlations revealed that vegetative traits including shoot biomass, tiller number and leaf number along with yield-related traits such as spike number, one spike dry weight, grain number/plant and grain number/spike were highly positively correlated with grain yield under saline conditions. Hence, these traits can be used as reliable selection criteria to improve barley grain yield. Keeping a higher shoot biomass and longer heading and maturity periods as well as privileged filling ability might contribute to higher grain production in barley and thus could be potential target traits in barley crop breeding toward improvement of salinity tolerance. Multiple selection indices revealed that salt tolerance trait index provided a better discrimination of barley landraces allowing selection of highly salt-tolerant and highly productive genotypes under severe salinity level. Effective evaluation of salt tolerance requires an integration of selection indices to successfully identify and characterize salt tolerant lines required for valuable exploitation in the management of salt-affected areas.  


Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 290
Author(s):  
Abdul Kader Alabdullah ◽  
Graham Moore ◽  
Azahara C. Martín

Although most flowering plants are polyploid, little is known of how the meiotic process evolves after polyploidisation to stabilise and preserve fertility. On wheat polyploidisation, the major meiotic gene ZIP4 on chromosome 3B duplicated onto 5B and diverged (TaZIP4-B2). TaZIP4-B2 was recently shown to promote homologous pairing, synapsis and crossover, and suppress homoeologous crossover. We therefore suspected that these meiotic stabilising effects could be important for preserving wheat fertility. A CRISPR Tazip4-B2 mutant was exploited to assess the contribution of the 5B duplicated ZIP4 copy in maintaining pollen viability and grain setting. Analysis demonstrated abnormalities in 56% of meiocytes in the Tazip4-B2 mutant, with micronuclei in 50% of tetrads, reduced size in 48% of pollen grains and a near 50% reduction in grain number. Further studies showed that most of the reduced grain number occurred when Tazip4-B2 mutant plants were pollinated with the less viable Tazip4-B2 mutant pollen rather than with wild type pollen, suggesting that the stabilising effect of TaZIP4-B2 on meiosis has a greater consequence in subsequent male, rather than female gametogenesis. These studies reveal the extraordinary value of the wheat chromosome 5B TaZIP4-B2 duplication to agriculture and human nutrition. Future studies should further investigate the role of TaZIP4-B2 on female fertility and assess whether different TaZIP4-B2 alleles exhibit variable effects on meiotic stabilisation and/or resistance to temperature change.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luojiang Huang ◽  
Kai Hua ◽  
Ran Xu ◽  
Dali Zeng ◽  
Ruci Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract Panicle size and grain number are important agronomic traits and influence grain yield in rice (Oryza sativa), but the molecular and genetic mechanisms underlying panicle size and grain number control remain largely unknown in crops. Here we report that LARGE2 encodes a HECT-domain E3 ubiquitin ligase OsUPL2 and regulates panicle size and grain number in rice. The loss of function large2 mutants produce large panicles with increased grain number, wide grains and leaves, and thick culms. LARGE2 regulates panicle size and grain number by repressing meristematic activity. LARGE2 is highly expressed in young panicles and grains. Biochemical analyses show that LARGE2 physically associates with ABERRANT PANICLE ORGANIZATION1 (APO1) and APO2, two positive regulators of panicle size and grain number, and modulates their stabilities. Genetic analyses support that LARGE2 functions with APO1 and APO2 in a common pathway to regulate panicle size and grain number. These findings reveal a novel genetic and molecular mechanism of the LARGE2-APO1/APO2 module-mediated control of panicle size and grain number in rice, suggesting that this module is a promising target for improving panicle size and grain number in crops.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 5167
Author(s):  
Lei Liu ◽  
Penelope L. Lindsay ◽  
David Jackson

Artificial domestication and improvement of the majority of crops began approximately 10,000 years ago, in different parts of the world, to achieve high productivity, good quality, and widespread adaptability. It was initiated from a phenotype-based selection by local farmers and developed to current biotechnology-based breeding to feed over 7 billion people. For most cereal crops, yield relates to grain production, which could be enhanced by increasing grain number and weight. Grain number is typically determined during inflorescence development. Many mutants and genes for inflorescence development have already been characterized in cereal crops. Therefore, optimization of such genes could fine-tune yield-related traits, such as grain number. With the rapidly advancing genome-editing technologies and understanding of yield-related traits, knowledge-driven breeding by design is becoming a reality. This review introduces knowledge about inflorescence yield-related traits in cereal crops, focusing on rice, maize, and wheat. Next, emerging genome-editing technologies and recent studies that apply this technology to engineer crop yield improvement by targeting inflorescence development are reviewed. These approaches promise to usher in a new era of breeding practice.


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