Extracting and Storing Strawberry Pollen
摘要
Strawberries are among the most important berry crops cultivated, bred, produced, and marketed worldwide. Most strawberry flowers open in the morning and may not then undergo anther dehiscence. Their pollen germination rate is significantly lower in the afternoon when anthers open. Therefore, we undertook anther dehiscence under a dry condition (on silica gel beads, at 25 °C for 24 h, in the dark) and found that a large amount of pollen with a high germination rate could be produced. Furthermore, pollen produced by this method maintained a germination rate of ≈40% for 28 days if stored under vacuum at <20 °C. Pollen stored under vacuum at −18 or −25 °C showed 100% fruiting rate after six months, and a similar germination rate after one year. Our methods for anther dehiscence and pollen storage efficiently facilitate preservation of the genetic variants of different cultivars of strawberries.