Relationship of Seed Quality to Genetic Variation in Pollen

许多植物物种，包括许多经济上 重要的，定期脱落（流产）的一大部分，他们的 水果作物 果树败育研究进展 重要的饲料作物，鸟脚三叶草，表明这种植物， 不仅选择性地使那些种子最少的果实流产， 但这样做，它提高了种子的平均质量， （后代）。 在另一项对普通西葫芦的研究中， 放置在花的柱头上的花粉粒的数量 是多种多样的。 那些种子最少的水果也是 最有可能流产 此外，种子最多的水果 产生的后代发芽更快， 作为幼苗，并有更大的花卉和水果生产， 成年人比种子少的水果。 斯蒂芬森医生 建议检查这些观察到的假设， 种子质量的差异是由于遗传差异， 产生种子的花粉粒 也就是说，当有 花粉管比卵多，只有最好的花粉父亲成熟 种子 相反，当花粉管比卵少时， 好的和中等的花粉都能产生成熟的种子。 因此，通过流产这些水果与少数种子（生产） 当花粉管比卵少的时候） 排除那些由普通花粉所生的后代， 只保留最好的花粉孕育的果实。 这些发现不仅会对人类产生深远的影响， 基本的进化生物学和生态学， 对植物科学应用领域的意义。 比如说， 快速筛选大量花粉粒的能力 农业上理想的性状，仅使用有限的空间， 对植物育种者来说代表着巨大的潜在收益。 等 筛查可以证明是更便宜，更快速， 比其他许多最先进的技术更容易实现， 技术，如重组DNA和组织培养。

Many plant species, including numerous economically important ones, regularly shed (abort) a large portion of their fruit crop. Recent study of fruit abortion on the common and important forage crop, birdsfoot trefoil, shows that this plant not only selectively aborts those fruits with the fewest seeds but, by doing so, it improves the average quality of its seed (progeny). In another study of common zucchini squash, the number of pollen grains placed onto the stigmas of the flowers were varied. Again those fruits with the fewest seeds were the most likely to abort. Moreover, the fruits with the most seeds produced progeny that germinated more rapidly, were more vigorous as seedlings, and had greater flower and fruit production as adults than did the fruits with fewer seeds. Dr. Stephenson proposes to examine the hypothesis that these observed differences in seed quality are due to genetic differences in the pollen grains that fathered the seed. That is, when there are more pollen tubes than eggs, only the best pollen fathers mature seed. In contrast, when there are fewer pollen tubes than eggs, both the good and the mediocre pollen fathers mature seed. Therefore, by aborting those fruits with the few seeds (produced when there were fewer pollen tubes than eggs) the plants eliminate those progeny fathered by the mediocre pollen while retaining the fruits fathered only by the best pollen. These findings should not only far reaching implications for basic evolutionary biology and ecology but will also have significance for applied areas of plant science. For example, the ability to rapidly screen large numbers of pollen grains for agriculturally desirable traits, using only limited space, represents enormous potential gains for plant breeders. Such screening could prove to be less expensive, more rapid, and easier to implement than many of the other state-of-the-art techniques, such as recombinant DNA and tissue culture.