Abstract
Pollen has a highly significant mission: It must develop a tube and deposit two sperm within the embryo sac. In the case of cotton,Gossypium hirstum L., the pollen tube is four to five centimeters long and the growth of the tube takes 14 to 15 hours. During this growth there is no clear evidence that the tube absorbs nutrients from the style. Consequently the mature pollen is both large and filled with reserve food. The mature cotton pollen has a remarkable architecture in which the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) has greatly enlarged cisternae that contain reserves of proteins. (Fisher, et al. 1968; Jensen et al. 1968). The enlarged ER forms pockets that are lined with lipid bodies and filled with dictyosome vesicles. The surface of the ER is lined with densely packed ribosomes. Thus, the cotton pollen grain has a remarkable supply of higher energy reserves and abundant raw material for rapid growth. But, how do these reserves accumulate and when during the maturation of the grain are they formed?
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Fisher, DB, WA Jensen, and ME Ashton. 1968. Histochemical studies on pollen: storage pockets in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Histochemie 13: 169 – 182
Jensen, WA, DB Fisher, and ME Ashton. 1968. Cotton embryogenesis: the pollen cytoplasm. Planta 81: 206 – 228.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1992 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Jensen, W.A., Wetzel, C.L.R. (1992). Maturation of the Pollen of Cotton. In: Ottaviano, E., Gorla, M.S., Mulcahy, D.L., Mulcahy, G.B. (eds) Angiosperm Pollen and Ovules. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2958-2_25
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2958-2_25
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7733-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-2958-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive