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Pollen itself is not the male gamete. [4] It is a gametophyte, something that could be considered an entire organism, which then produces the male gamete.Each pollen grain contains vegetative (non-reproductive) cells (only a single cell in most flowering plants but several in other seed plants) and a generative (reproductive) cell.
Pollen DNA barcoding is the process of identifying pollen donor plant species through the amplification and sequencing of specific, conserved regions of plant DNA. Being able to accurately identify pollen has a wide range of applications though it has been difficult in the past due to the limitations of microscopic identification of pollen.
Pollen grains have a variety of shapes, sizes, colors, structures, and numbers identification keys exist as a reference. Large-scale collections of pollen specimens that reside in museums and university herbaria also serve as a resource for forensic palynologists to identify and classify the samples they collect. There are also many online ...
Earlier pollen researchers include Früh (1885), [16] who enumerated many common tree pollen types, and a considerable number of spores and herb pollen grains. There is a study of pollen samples taken from sediments of Swedish lakes by Trybom (1888); [17] pine and spruce pollen was found in such profusion that he considered them to be ...
Once the pollen grain has matured, the anthers break open, releasing the pollen. The pollen is carried to the pistil of another flower, by wind or animal pollinators, and deposited on the stigma. As the pollen grain germinates, the tube cell produces the pollen tube, which elongates and extends down the long style of the carpel and into the ...
In the winter, pollen levels indoors actually exceed outdoor levels. [13] Up to date data on pollen levels is critical for humans that have allergies. A current limitation is that many spore traps require scientists to identify and count individual pollen grains under magnification. [10] This causes data to be delayed, sometimes by over a week.
Pollen has an outer sheath, called a sporopollenin, which affords it some resistance to the rigours of the fossilisation process that destroy weaker objects. It is produced in huge quantities. There is an extensive fossil record of pollen grains, often disassociated from their parent plant.
The competitive ability of pollen grains (microgapmetophytes) is rooted in the expression of their haploid genomes. The haploid genes are expressed immediately after pollen development and during pollen germination and pollen-tube growth. [2] About 60% of genes expressed in the sporophyte are also expressed in the microgametophyte. [3]