Research on the reproductive biological characteristics of Amomum villosum Lour. and Amomum longiligulare T. L. Wu

PLoS One. 2021 Aug 19;16(8):e0250335. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250335. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Objective: To explore the influence of biological characteristics on the yield of Amomum villosum Lour. and Amomum longiligulare T. L. Wu, to find an effective pollen viability evaluation method and storage method to solve the problem of the low yield of Amomum plants.

Methods: Five germplasm of Amomum plants were used to investigate the effects of the phenological phase, pollen viability, and stigma receptivity on natural and artificial fruit set.

Results: Amomum longiligulare T. L. Wu showed late flowering, and its natural pollination rate is higher than that of Amomum villosum Lour. In all germplasm, the artificial pollination rate and fruit setting rate are more than 3 times higher than that under natural conditions. Fruits begin to drop seven days after successful pollination, and the fruit drop is basically stable after one month. The hybridization verification showed that TTC method was simpler and more accurate than in vitro germination method. Optimal storage conditions for pollen are 4°C and high humidity. After 36 h of storage, pollen can still be used for artificial cross-pollination or as hybrid parents.

Conclusion: The special biological characteristics are the fundamental reason for the low natural pollination rate of Amomum plants. The accurate measurement method of Amomum plants pollen is the TTC method, and storage at 4°C and high humidity can increase the yield, which was six times that of the natural yield.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amomum / growth & development
  • Amomum / physiology*
  • Flowers / physiology
  • Fruit / growth & development
  • Fruit / physiology
  • Pollen / physiology
  • Pollination / physiology
  • Reproduction / physiology

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC1701102), Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province (No.2020B20221002), Project of Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Guangdong Province of China(20191281), and National Major Scientific and Technological Special Project for “Significant New Drugs Development”: (2018ZX09721005-002-004). The funder provided support in the form of salaries for authors [DMS, WG], but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.