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Foreword

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 September 2009

K. R. Shivanna
Affiliation:
University of Delhi
V. K. Sawhney
Affiliation:
University of Saskatchewan, Canada
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Summary

Our knowledge of pollen, the gold dust that carries the male germ line of flowering plants and is vital for sexual reproduction and seed formation, has “come of age” with the publication of this book. Here, for the first time in a single volume, are all the ideas and techniques developed in the last two decades concerning the manipulation of pollen and pollen tubes in plant breeding and biotechnology. Pollen has never been an easy topic to come to grips with, with its variable and often inexplicable terminology that has made it a difficult field in which to work. This book will remedy that, with its overview of pollen biology and pollen–pistil interactions that explains terms and concepts of the male function of pollen in a way that is readily understandable.

This new biotechnology of pollen had its origins 40 years ago in developments in plant tissue culture, physiology, and electron microscopy, and, more recently, with the advent of molecular genetics. In reviewing pollen developmental processes and genetic defects in the early 1970s, Professor Jack Heslop-Harrison FRS showed how the opportunities for manipulation might be achieved:

On the one hand, are developmental faults involving deviation from the presumptive behaviour of a spore in the anther, with the production of a female gametophyte or even a sporophyte instead of a pollen grain. On the other hand, are failures of differentiation and various forms of abortion that result in death or gross malfunction. Events of the first category … illustrate the totipotency of the spore nucleus in an immediate and dramatic way, and show that the determination of the fate of the spore depends upon influence acting upon it soon after meiosis. […]

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1997

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  • Foreword
  • Edited by K. R. Shivanna, University of Delhi, V. K. Sawhney, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
  • Foreword by R. Bruce Knox
  • Book: Pollen Biotechnology for Crop Production and Improvement
  • Online publication: 11 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511525469.001
Available formats
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Save book to Dropbox

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  • Foreword
  • Edited by K. R. Shivanna, University of Delhi, V. K. Sawhney, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
  • Foreword by R. Bruce Knox
  • Book: Pollen Biotechnology for Crop Production and Improvement
  • Online publication: 11 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511525469.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Foreword
  • Edited by K. R. Shivanna, University of Delhi, V. K. Sawhney, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
  • Foreword by R. Bruce Knox
  • Book: Pollen Biotechnology for Crop Production and Improvement
  • Online publication: 11 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511525469.001
Available formats
×