Once they take a core sample, the scientists isolate the pollen and spores from the sediments and rocks using both chemical and physical means.
The grains are very small, typically between 10 and 200 micrometers, which requires mounting them on microscope slides for examination..
W hen viewed with a dissecting microscope, pollen looks like a fine yellow or white dust, but when magnified many thousands of times in a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) each plant pollen species reveals a unique set of characteristics.
They can be distinguished by shape, size and ornamentation..
Cytologic specimens are prone to different types of contaminants that can occur during pre-processing or post-processing.
These contaminants include vegetable material, pollen, diatoms, fungal spores, microorganisms, and inanimate structures like fibers..
To carry out a cytology, three steps are required: Specimen collection.
Use a proper technique: procedure, preparation of smears, fixation, and cytological staining.
Microscopic evaluation of smears..
Pollen consists of one or more vegetative cells and a reproductive cell.
A pollen grain itself is not the male gamete.
In angiosperms and certain gymnosperms, the vegetative cell forms the pollen tube that grows to meet the unfertilized ovules, and the reproductive cell is the source of the sperm..
Palynology is the study of plant pollen, spores and certain microscopic plankton organisms (collectively termed palynomorphs) in both living and fossil form..
Acetolysis (Erdtman 1960) is a standard palynologi- cal preparation technique and an indispensable method for illustrating pollen grains with the LM.
Untreated or stained pollen grains will hide much of the important information for the descrip- tion of a pollen grain..
Direct analysis of pollen fitness by flow cytometry: implications for pollen response to stress Sexual reproduction in flowering plants depends on the fitness of the male gametophyte during fertilization
The four microspores then form the double wall of the pollen grain within a structure made of callose
During this process, the callose is digested by callase and the pollen grains are able to grow and complete the formation of the endospore and exospore
Pollen refers to the powdery product synthesized by seed plants responsible for the production of the male gametes of the plant (shown below)
