Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: Chickpea is sensitive to chilling temperatures (<10°C), \nespecially at its reproductive phase leading to floral \nabortion. The exact causes of reproductive failures are \nnot fully understood. In the present study, we assessed the \ncold-induced damage to development and functioning of \nmale and female components by growing an early \nflowering chickpea genotype ICCV 96029 under warm \nconditions of the glasshouse (control; average maximum \nand minimum temperature ≥28/15°C) as well as under \ncold conditions of the field (average maximum and \nminimum temperature ≤20/10°C during reproductive \nphase). Low temperature of the field environment \nrestricted the vegetative growth and delayed all the \nphenological stages in comparison to control plants. \nApart from this, it led to some vegetative aberrations like \nchlorosis, necrosis of leaf tips and curling of whole leaf. \nThe damage to reproductive stage involved abscission of \njuvenile buds and flowers and abortion of pods. On the \nwhole, pollen development at young microspore stage \nappeared to be severely affected in stressed conditions \ncompared to the control conditions. Pollen viability was \nsuppressed during stressed conditions (60%) compared \nto normal plants (95%). Stigma receptivity, in vivo pollen \ngermination and pollen tube growth were inhibited in the \nstressed plants. Fluorescent studies showed that the \nstigma either did not show any pollen load or pollen \ngrains did not germinate on its surface in stressed plants. \nEven when the pollen grains germinated, the pollen tubes \nrarely grew beyond the proximal region of the style; \nmostly the pollen tubes were impaired in their growth and \ndid not reach the ovules leading to failure in fertilization. \nThe egg and secondary nucleus in such ovules ultimately \ndisintegrated without fertilizing and hence no seed \nformation occurred.
Language: English
Topic: Plant Reproductive Biology
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2145510100