ISHS Acta Horticulturae 514: XXV International Horticultural Congress, Part 4: Culture Techniques with Special Emphasis on Environmental Implications
MORPHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON POLLEN OF SOUR CHERRY (PRUNUS CERASUS L.) CULTIVARS |
| Authors: | M.L. Miaja, L. Radicati, M. Porporato, R. Caramiello, V. Fossa, R. Vallania |
| Keywords: | biotypes, palynology, pollen germinability, scanning electron microscope, sour cherry |
| Abstract:
Cherries are an important crop in Italy and are mainly grown in hilly areas for best ecological adaptation. While sweet cherry represents about 90% of the national production and is mainly used for fresh consumption, sour cherry is spread throughout the northern regions of the country and the fruit is mainly processed. In Piemonte (North-West Italy) different varieties of sour cherry are grown, mainly older local biotypes but also some well known varieties (e.g. Meteor, Montmorency, Nabella). As autocompatibility is common in sour cherry (although recent literature reports several cases of autoincompatibility) the numerous cases of low fruit set in this species may be partially explained by malformed pollen and consequent low functionality. Sour cherry is known to be tetraploid and this could explain disorders during meiosis leading to formation of unviable pollen grains. In this work pollen germinability and viability of different varieties of sour cherry grown in Piemonte were tested in vitro. Pollen germinability was low in all the cultivars tested (less than 25%) but pollen tubes were well developed. Furthermore, pollen structure was observed under the scanning electron microscope in order to characterize the varieties. Pollen grains were tricolporate but in some cultivars tetracolporate and abnormal grains were observed. Scanning electron | |
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