SCIENCE@home

A practical method to improve the efficiency of pollination in maize breeding and genetics research

Dylan L. Schoemaker,F. McFarland,B. Martinell,Kathryn J. Michel,Lucas Mathews,D. O’Brien,Natalia de León,H. Kaeppler,S. Kaeppler

Published 2023 in Crop science

ABSTRACT

23 Seed increase through manual pollination is a critical part of maize breeding and genetics 24 research to advance generations in breeding programs, to create desired research crosses, and 25 produce hybrid seed for trials. Pollination in the field and in controlled environments relies on 26 the availability of high-quality pollen at the time that recipient silks are receptive. Generally, 27 pollinations are made by capturing pollen from the tassel in a paper pollinating bag placed on the 28 tassels one day prior to pollination and newly released pollen is then transferred to silks on the 29 target plant. In the field, maize pollen is only viable for one to four hours following dehiscence 30 and the rate of desiccation is influenced by environmental conditions. We have developed a 31 method which increases the lifespan of pollen and allows pollen from a single tassel to be used to 32 pollinate many ears by mixing fresh pollen with a dilutant that can be stored for multiple days. 33 We identified characteristics of the size of suitable substrates and selected a PEEK based 34 substrate for regular utilization. We evaluated pollen viability and empirically demonstrated the 35 capability to store pollen up to nine days when pollen is mixed with a PEEK substrate and stored 36 at 6°C. The pollen storage method was used to make successful pollinations across 24 maize 37 inbred lines tested and was generally equivalent to the standard manual pollination process. This 38 method has the potential to increase the efficiency of breeding operations and may be useful in 39 an array of genetic studies. 40

PUBLICATION RECORD

CITATION MAP

EXTRACTION MAP

CLAIMS

  • No claims are published for this paper.

CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

REFERENCES

Showing 1-42 of 42 references · Page 1 of 1

CITED BY