Abstract

In stone fruit trees such as peach, plum, prune and sour cherry, pollen performance includes pollen quantity produced in a flower and pollen quality consists of viability, longevity, morphological homogeneity, pollen germination and pollen tube growth rate which are very important component of fertilization and fruit setting. However, study of main pollen traits is one of the most important approaches for the stone fruit trees growers and breeders. In this research, main pollen traits including germination, tube growth and longevity were investigated in some favorable selected genotypes of four Prunusspecies including peach, plum, prune and sour cherry. Pollen traits of five genotypes from each species were studied after one month maintenance in -20°C using the in vitro medium containing 15% sucrose, 1% agar and 5 ppm H3BO3 (boric acid). Pollens were planted in the in vitro medium inside the Petri-dishes and incubated at the constant temperature of 24°C for 24 h and then, pollen germination and growth were protected using chloroform. In each Petri-dish six squires were randomly selected for studding Pollen Germination Percentage (PGP) and Pollen Tube Length (PTL) using light-microscope. Data analyzed with SAS software and results showed significant differences in the studied traits among four species and genotypes of each species. However, genotypes of peach showed the highest PGP and PTL proving the high longevity of peach pollens among four studied species.

Key words: Rosaceae family, peach, plum, prune, sour cherry, pollen viablity and in vitro.