Why Pollen Quality Matters
Quality in Breeding and Seed Production
Plant Breeding
The transfer of genetic information of plants occurs through pollen. Especially in expensive hybrid breeding but also in line breeding, the health and quality of pollen is of highest interest. Abiotic factors like temperature, humidity, radiation, and other genetic factors like inbreeding depression have a direct and increasing – negative – impact on pollen viability, quantity and quality.
In times of climate change and increasing demand for food, the knowledge about the quality and health of pollen is indispensable for efficient plant breeding and seed production. Having a fast, easy-to-use, and highly accurate tool to determine the quality of pollen enables researchers and breeders to:
- Improve and speed-up the DH production process
- Improve efficiency in line selection by early removal of bad pollinators
- Breed for heat tolerant lines with high pollen quality
- Improve precision phenotyping and gene mapping
Seed Production
The transfer of genetic information of plants occurs through pollen. Especially in expensive hybrid breeding but also in line breeding, the health and quality of pollen is of highest interest. Abiotic factors like temperature, humidity, radiation, and other genetic factors like inbreeding depression have a direct and increasing – negative – impact on pollen viability, quantity and quality. A high quality of pollen is indispensable for achieving an efficient pollination and to obtain a high seed set.
For the optimization of production factors like crop placement or the female-to-male ratio the knowledge about pollen quality and characteristics is needed. To improve commercial seed production and to obtain the highest seed set in a reliable way, a high pollen quality is needed. Using a fast, easy-to-use and highly accurate tool to determine the quality of pollen enables production research and seed producers to:
- Get the right information for crop placement
- Determine the pollen viability threshold for full seed set
- Optimize production pattern for low performing pollinators
- Set-up the right protocols for pollen (storage) management