Strong interest in pollen quality monitoring at ISF Brisbane

Strong Interest in Pollen Quality Analysis in Australia

In June the Amphasys sales team visited Australia for a demo tour with our new distribution partner ICT International. The trip started with the installation of an Ampha Z32 at the University of Sydney for use in their wheat breeding program and was followed by visits to Central Queensland University, Rijk Zwaan and University of Queensland. We were very pleased with the good discussions that we had and the overwhelming interest shown in pollen viability applications.

One of the highlights of the trip was attending the ISF World Seed Congress in Brisbane, where we had many interesting discussions on various applications – ranging from how to implement yield forecasting to how to best control the pollen quality through storage and transportation.

We thank all visitors at our booth and of course our strong distribution partners ICT International and Zealquest for their support during the meeting!

Plant Germline Development

New “Plant Germline Development – Methods in Molecular Biology”

The book “Plant Germline Development” includes cutting edge methods and protocols for the study of plant germline development. It also features a chapter on analyzing microspore and pollen quality using Impedance Flow Cytometry, written by Amphasys’ CTO Dr. Marco Di Berardino and Dr. Iris Heidmann. 

 

Analyzing pollen quality in an efficient and reliable manner is of great importance to the industries involved
in seed and fruit production, plant breeding, and plant research. Pollen quality parameters, viability and
germination capacity, are analyzed by various staining methods or by in vitro germination assays, respectively. These methods are time-consuming, species-dependent, and require a lab environment. Furthermore, the obtained viability data are often poorly related to in vivo pollen germination and seed set. In chapter 25, a quick and label-free method to analyze pollen is introduced, using microfluidic chips inserted into an impedance flow cytometer (IFC).