Behavioural studies on the pollen grains of Pinus roxburghii collected from Lucknow, India- A report

Authors

  • Pooja Dixit Department of Botany, Lucknow University, Lucknow 226007, India
  • Gauri Saxena Department of Botany, Lucknow University, Lucknow 226007, India
  • Dinesh Kumar Department of Botany, Lucknow University, Lucknow 226007, India
  • Lav Singh Department of Botany, Lucknow University, Lucknow 226007, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54991/jop.2016.316

Keywords:

Deformities, elliptical, Gondwana, Mesozoic, pollutants, radioactive

Abstract

We have long recognized that natural climatic shifts influence the development of plants on earth. These slow temperature fluctuations have resulted in either the extinction or evolution of various species. A careful study of the comparative morphology of the living and fossil type suggests that the modern coniferous families originated independently from a group of extinct conifers called the transition conifers by Florin. The conifers reached their climax in the mid–Mesozoic times and have been on the decline ever since. Pinaceae is one such family whose pollen grains have been located as long back as in the Gondwana flora and have demonstrated morphological variations since then due to climatic changes.

Pinus is the most dominating genus of the family Pinaceae in gymnosperms. Pine grains are large due to their sacs or bladders, which make them one of the easiest pollen grains to identify. They are rich in non–enzymatic anti–oxidants, like provitamin A, B complex, C, D and E plus a host of minerals and amino acids. Apparently pine pollen is also a great defense against radioactive caesium that is appearing in dairy and other foods in the U.S.

The present study examines the changes occurring in one of the most sensitive phases of plant development in the living genus of Pinus, i.e. the behaviour of pollen, found to be dependent on number of genetic or environmental factors. The major environmental factors contributing to this abnormal behaviour include light intensity and quality, temperature and moisture and level of pollutants in atmosphere.

During present study, the Pinus cones were collected from five experimental areas of Lucknow that exhibited different level of deformities probably due to different levels of environmental stress or other genetic reasons. The clusters were unique in having deformed cones on the side facing the road while they were near normal on the side away from road indicating that the area around the roadside being more polluted and may be playing a detrimental role in cone morphology. Pollen of normal cones were bilateral, analept, usually bisaccate, spherical, slightly elliptical with verrucate corpus and sacci having pila, normal average size being 60μ–65μ including sacci and sacci attached almost full width of corpus, exine thick in proximal part of reticuloid corpus. While pollen grains of abnormal cones show abnormalities in their size, shape, size and number of wings, size and shape of corpus and development of pollen tube within microsporangium. The abnormalities were observed using scanning electron microscopic studies and its percentage was calculated using a light microscope.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

CaiyunYang & Maoxian Yang 1989. Study on the pollen morphology of Pinus Yunnanensis. Acta Metallurgica Sinica 1989, 11(01) 1–3 DOI: ISSN: 0412–1961 CN: 21–1139/TG.

Chira RAE 1967. Pollen grains of Pinus edulis with more than the haploid number of chromosomes. Silvae Genet 16: 14–18.

Erdtman G 1943. An introduction to pollen analysis, New York.

Erdtman G 1957. Pollen and spore morphology, Plant taxonomy, Gymnospermae, Pteridophyta, Bryophyta (illustrations), Stockholm.

Erdtman G 1965. Pollen and spore morphology, Plant taxonomy, Gymnospermae, Pteridophyta, Bryophyta (illustrations) Stockholm.

Erdtman G 1969. Handbook of Palynology. An introduction to the study of pollen grains and spores–Munksgaard, Copenhagen.

Hao H, Chen T, Fan L & Li R Wang X 2013. 2, 6 dichlorobenzonitrile causes multiple effects on pollen tube growth beyond altering cellulose synthesis in Pinus bungeana Zucc. PLoS ONE 8(10): e76660 doi: 10.1371/ journal. Pone. 0076660.

Jones CG 2012. Scanning electron microscopy: preparation and imaging for SEM. Methods of Molecular Biology 2012; 915: 1–20.doi: 10.1007/978–1–61779–977–8_1.

Kristina F Conner, Timothy C Prewitt & Franklin T Bonner 1998. Environmental stresses and Reproductive Biology of Loblolly Pine (Pinus Taeda L.) and flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida). The Productivity and Sustainability of Southern Forest Ecosystem in a changing Environmental Ecological study. Volume 128: 103–116.

Lakhanpal RN & Nair PKK 1936. Some abnormal pollen grains of Picea smithiana Boiss. Journal of Indian Botanical Society 35: 426–429.

Mehra PN 1966. Palynology of Archaegoniatae. An evolutionary approach. First annual Lecture of palynological Society of India. Journal of Palynology 4: 56–72.

Mehra PN 1988. Indian Conifers, Gnetophytes and phylogeny of Gymnosperms photoset and printed by Raj Bandhu, New Delhi: 121–143.

Millar Constance I 1993. Impact of the Eocene on the evolution of Pinus L. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 80(2): 471–498.

Puri GS 1945. Some abnormal pollen grains of Pinus excelsa. Current Science 14: 255–256.

Srivastava SK 1960a. On the abnormality in some pollen grains of Pinus roxburghii Sarg. Grana palynologica (N.S) 1: 130–132.

Srivastava SK 1960b. Morphology of normal and some abnormal pollen grains of Pinus roxburghii Sarg. Bulletin of the Botanical Society of Bengal 14(1): 5-9.

Sunny Soleil & Filed 2012. Pine Pollen–How to Pick Your Own Superfood under Food Plants–Perennial, Health & Disease, Medicinal Plants, Nuclear, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Trees, Water Contaminaton & Loss. Posted on January 4, 2012.

Vishnu–Mittre 1957. Abnormal pollen grains in some Indian Gymnosperms with remarks of the significance of the abnormalities. Journal of Indian Botanical Society 36: 548–563.

Waheed Abdul, Ahmad Habi & Abbasi M Fida 2012. Pollen sterility in wide crosses derivatives of rice (Oryza sativa L.). Journal of Material and Environmental Science 4(3): 404–409.

Wang Q, Kong L, Hao H, Wang X, Lin J, Samaj J & Baluska F 2005. Effects of Brefeldin–A on Pollen Germination and Tube Growth. Antagonistic Effects on Endocytosis and Secretion. Plant Physiology. 139(4): 1692–1703.

Downloads

Published

2016-12-31

How to Cite

Dixit, P., Saxena, G., Kumar, D., & Singh, L. (2016). Behavioural studies on the pollen grains of Pinus roxburghii collected from Lucknow, India- A report. Journal of Palaeosciences, 65((1-2), 285–296. https://doi.org/10.54991/jop.2016.316

Issue

Section

Research Articles