E. Vangelderen et al., THE CRITERIA OF MEASUREMENT OF THE INORGANIC ACID TEST OF POLLEN VIABILITY, South African journal of botany, 61(5), 1995, pp. 253-259
The application of sulphuric acid to pollen causes the formation of pr
otrusions of the vegetative cell from the germinative pores of pollen
grains, and in aperturate pollen these protrusions resemble true polle
n tubes. In this study, the sulphuric acid-induced pseudo pollen tubes
of Petunia were examined to determine the criteria of measurement of
this pollen viability testing procedure. The inorganic acid test of po
llen viability does not differentiate between living and dead pollen g
rains, as was reported earlier, but measures the presence of the veget
ative cell, bounded by an intact cell membrane. The procedure requires
only low-magnification microscopy and takes a few seconds to perform.
It is a simple, rapid, indirect microscopic test for the estimation o
f pollen viability in fresh pollen under field conditions. This proced
ure facilitates the obtaining of naked male gametophytes, and further
development of the method may assist in the study of organelles and th
e internal structure of the pollen grain.