Methods for characterizing pollen fitness in Cannabis sativa L

PLoS One. 2022 Jul 7;17(7):e0270799. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270799. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Pollen grains are male gametophytes, an ephemeral haploid generation of plants, that commonly engage in competition for a limited supply of ovules. Since variation in reproductive capabilities among male gametophytes may influence the direction and pace of evolution in populations, we must be able to quantify the relative fitness of gametophytes from different sires. To explore this, we estimated the relative fitness of groups of male gametophytes in a dioecious, wind-pollinated model system, Cannabis sativa, by characterizing the non-abortion rate (measured via chemical staining) and viability (measured via in vitro germination) of pollen from multiple sires. Pollen viability quickly declined within two weeks of anther dehiscence, and pollen stored under freezer conditions did not germinate regardless of storage time. In contrast, pollen non-abortion rates declined slowly and persisted longer than the lifetime of a sporophyte plant under both room temperature and freezer conditions. Pollen samples that underwent both viability and non-abortion rate analysis displayed no significant correlation, implying that researchers cannot predict pollen viability from non-abortion rates, nor infer male gametophytic fitness from a single measure. Our work demonstrates two independent, differential approaches to measure proxies of male fitness in C. sativa.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cannabis*
  • Germ Cells, Plant
  • Ovule
  • Plants
  • Pollen

Grants and funding

This work was supported by funds from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [DG #402305-2011 and DG #05780-2019 to LGC], as well as the department of Chemistry and Biology at Ryerson University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.