Pollen germination bioassay (Boraginaceae)

Knowledge graph centered on Pollen germination bioassay (Boraginaceae) with 31 nodes and 109 connections. Top connected: Hummingbird, Bombus, Bombus terrestris, Bombus appositus, Bombus impatiens.

Method synopsis

Laboratory assay testing pollen viability under different water exposure treatments using germination medium and microscopic analysis.

Synthesized from method descriptions across 1 paper using this protocol.

Procedure from a recent peer-reviewed implementation

Steps below were extracted from the most recent peer-reviewed implementation of this protocol in the corpus — The function of floral orientation in bluebells: interactions with pollinators and rain in two species of <i> Mertensia </i> (Boraginaceae) (2019), Journal of Plant Ecology. Implementations in other papers (listed below) may differ.

1. Test pollen germination rates
   Randomly select 15 plants of each species and remove three flowers with freshly dehisced anthers from each. Remove three anthers from each flower and place on microscope slides. Randomly assign each anther to one of three treatments: 3 hours in pollen germination medium (control), 5% sucrose solution with additional nutrients in tap water for 3 hours (air exposure), or 1 hour in tap water followed by 3 hours in germination medium (water exposure). Count proportion of pollen grains with growing pollen tubes relative to total number of pollen grains under haphazardly chosen fields of view.
   Quantities: 15 plants per species, 3 flowers per plant, 3 anthers per flower, 270 total flowers analyzed with mean ± SE of 10.0 ± 0.6 pollen grains scored per slideDuration: Treatment durations of 1-3 hours as specifiedConditions: Room temperature, scope slides
   Equipment: microscope slides, Leitz Laborlux D light microscope, 20× magnification

Typical Equipment

• microscope slides
• Leitz Laborlux D light microscope

Output Measurements

• proportion of pollen grains germinating

Papers Using This Protocol (1)

Species Studied With This Protocol