Determination of Pollen Viability in Tomatoes

Abstract

A procedure is described for determining pollen viability in tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) by growing pollen in a growth medium containing 0.29 M sucrose, 1.27 mm Ca(NO3)2, 0.16 mm H3 BO3, and 1 mm KNO3 (pH 5.2) to which 0.001% fluorescein diacetate (FDA) was added. Pollen viability can be evaluated within 30 min by determining percent fluorescing pollen in a sample. The procedure further allows the determination of percent germination in vitro and pollen tube growth within 1.5 hours. Neither the germination medium nor FDA has any adverse effects on germination and pollen tube growth. Percent fluorescent pollen and percent total pollen germination were highly correlated, suggesting that fluorescence is a good measure of pollen viability. The combined fluorescence-germination procedure is simple and adapted to routine screening of many samples.