Abstract
Viable pollen is pollen that is competent to deliver two male gametes to the embryo sac. Methods to assess pollen quality aim to find the capacity of pollen - individual grains or members of a population - to deliver gametes. Pollen quality is normally measured 1) by scoring seed set in plants fertilized with a particular pollen sample, 2) by cytochemical staining of the grains, or 3) by looking at germination of the pollen in vitro or on styles. Table 1 includes the sequence of events that a viable pollen grain must complete. A failure at any stage gives male sterility, since the pollen is then unable to deliver the gametes.
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© 1992 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Heslop-Harrison, J.S. (1992). Cytological Techniques to Assess Pollen Quality. In: Cresti, M., Tiezzi, A. (eds) Sexual Plant Reproduction. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77677-9_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77677-9_4
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