Enza Zaden Seed Operations B.V., Haling 1E, 1602 DB, Enkhuizen, The Netherlands.
Amphasys AG, Technopark Lucerne, 6039, Root D4, Switzerland.
Sci Rep. 2023 May 5;13(1):7344. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-34158-z.
Solanaceae pollen cryopreservation is a common practice in the hybrid seed production industry worldwide, enabling effective hybridization across geographical and seasonal limitations. As pollination with low quality pollen can result in significant seed yield loss, monitoring the pollen quality has become an important risk management tool. In this study, pollen quality analysis methods were evaluated for their suitability for routine quality control of cryopreserved pollen batches. The assessments, including pollen viability, pollen germinability and pollen vigor analysis, were conducted in two locations on a diverse set of cryopreserved tomato and pepper pollen batches. While the viability obtained by Impedance Flow Cytometry (IFC) can be interpreted as the pollen's potential to germinate, the in vitro germination assay directly quantifies this functionality under given assay conditions. A linear correlation was found between pollen viability obtained by IFC and in vitro germinability. In conclusion, IFC is the most suitable tool for applications and industries requiring a high degree of automation, throughput, repeatability, and reproducibility. In vitro germination assays are suitable for studies within certain temporal and geographic limitations, due to difficulties in standardization. On the other hand, vigor assessments are not sufficiently addressing the needs of the industry due to poor reproducibility and low throughput.
茄科花粉的冷冻保存是全球杂交种子生产行业的常见做法，使跨越地理和季节限制的有效杂交成为可能。由于质量较低的花粉授粉可能导致显著的种子产量损失，因此监测花粉质量已成为一种重要的风险管理工具。在这项研究中，评估了花粉质量分析方法在冷冻保存花粉批次的常规质量控制中的适用性。在两个地点对不同的冷冻番茄和辣椒花粉批次进行了评估，包括花粉活力、花粉萌发率和花粉活力分析。尽管通过阻抗流式细胞术 (IFC) 获得的活力可以解释为花粉萌发的潜力，但体外萌发测定直接在给定的测定条件下定量此功能。发现 IFC 获得的花粉活力与体外萌发率之间存在线性相关性。总之，IFC 是最适合需要高度自动化、高通量、重复性和再现性的应用和行业的工具。体外萌发测定适用于在某些时间和地理限制内进行的研究，因为标准化存在困难。另一方面，由于重复性差和高通量低，活力评估不能充分满足行业的需求。
