In vitro germination of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) pollen

Abstract

Knowing the tobacco genotypes pollen viability during breeding programs is important. Culture media for in vitro pollen germination allows determining the germinative ability in a short period of time. To contribute to this knowledge, the chemical composition of a simple culture medium for in vitro germination of pollen grain was determined. The pollen grains in vitro germinations from seven tobacco genotypes: F1 hybrids ‘C-1’, ‘C-2’; ‘Habana 2000’ cv., ‘Habana 92’ cv., ‘Corojo 99’ cv., ‘NC 1071’ cv. and the breeding line ‘Wz’ were evaluated in the culture medium Brewbacker and Kwack (BK), SaCaBor(SCB), SaCaBorMag (SCBM) and SacaBorMag-PEG (SCBMP) through a random block experimental design with two replicates. The analysis of univariate factorial variance shows the highest general germination percentages were achieved in the solid medium SCB containing 150 mg L-1 H3BO3, 400 mg L-1 CaCl2 and 15 % sucrose. No pollen grain and pollen tube destruction in any medium due to osmotic potential alterations were observed. The presence of PEG-6000 in the medium SCBMP did not have any significant effect on the germination whether comparing with the SCB medium. The effect of the tobacco genotypes and the culture media chemical composition over the in vitro pollen germination was evidentiated.