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Bonding Single Pollen Grains Together: How and Why?

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Biological Adhesive Systems

Abstract

In their early developmental stages, the anthers (the pollen-producing organs of a male flower) form a tapetum between the sporogeneous tissue and the anther wall; both the tapetal cells and the sporogeneous cells have developed originally from the same subepidermal tissue. The tapetum is of considerable physiologic significance because all the nutritional material entering the microspores and later on the pollen grains passes or originates from it. In addition, during certain periods of pollen development, it accumulates substantial quantities of reserve compounds (e.g., starch and/or protein crystals in plastids, lipid droplets inside and outside the plastids, soluble polysaccharides in the vacuoles). These stored substances successively disappear during and after the tapetum degeneration, but several characters of mature pollen grains, which are of considerable interest in pollination, depend just on these substances. For details of tapetum development and ultrastructure the reader is referred to (1993); (1997); and (2005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department für Palynologie und Strukturelle Botanik, Universität Wien, Rennweg 14, 1030, Wien, Austria

    Michael Hesse

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  1. Michael Hesse
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  1. Core Facility Cell Imaging and Ultrastructure Research Faculty of Life Science, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Janek von Byern

  2. Department of Adhesive Bonding Technology and Surfaces, Adhesives and Polymer Chemistry, Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials (IFAM), Bremen, Germany

    Ingo Grunwald

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Hesse, M. (2010). Bonding Single Pollen Grains Together: How and Why?. In: von Byern, J., Grunwald, I. (eds) Biological Adhesive Systems. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-0286-2_1

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