Rice production is challenged by the asymmetric increases in day and night temperatures. Efforts are required to improve our understanding of the impact of climate change on rice production. To this end, 2-year experiment was conducted to evaluate the response of mid-season rice growth in the central and southern regions of China to elevated temperatures. Four replicates of four widely planted ...

A study was made of airborne pollen counts in Cuenca (east-central Iberian Peninsula, Spain), using data obtained over a 3-year period (2008-2010). This is the first such study carried out in the World Heritage city of Cuenca, situated in the large region of Castilla-La Mancha. Air monitoring was performed using the sampling and analysis procedures recommended by the Spanish Aerobiology Network...

Pollen identification is required in different scenarios such as prevention of allergic reactions, climate analysis or apiculture. However, it is a time-consuming task since experts are required to recognize each pollen grain through the microscope. In this study, we performed an exhaustive assessment on the utility of texture analysis for automated characterisation of pollen samples. A databas...

Thermal conditions at the beginning of the year determine the timing of pollen seasons of early flowering trees. The aims of this study were to quantify the relationship between the tree pollen season start dates and the thermal conditions just before the beginning of the season and to construct models predicting the start of the pollen season in a given year. The study was performed in Krakow ...

Ion signals are critical to regulating polarized growth in many cell types, including pollen in plants and neurons in animals. Genetic evidence presented here indicates that pollen tube growth requires cyclic nucleotide-gated channel (CNGC) 18. CNGCs are nonspecific cation channels found in plants and animals and have well established functions in excitatory signal transduction events in animal...

Despite nearly a century of research, the systematic relationships among North American pitcher plants in the genus Sarracenia (Sarraceniaceae) remain unresolved. In this study we analyzed pollen morphology of the 11 currently recognized species of Sarracenia and examined how variations in key pollen characteristics relate to our current understanding of the taxonomy of this genus. We used prin...

Temperature is a major climatic factor that limits geographical distribution of plant species, and the reproductive phase has proven to be one of the most temperature-vulnerable stages. Here, we have used peach to evaluate the effect of temperature on some processes of the progamic phase, from pollination to the arrival of pollen tubes in the ovary. Within the range of temperatures studied, 20 ...

Maize is a dynamic cereal of world’s agriculture community and is grown both in spring and autumn seasons in Pakistan. In case of spring sowing (February sowing) both pistillate and staminate flowers face high temperature stress and ultimately results in poor seed setting because of increased silk dryness and pollen desiccation. Maize accessions were identified on the basis of their performance...

The identification of pollen grains is a task needed in many scientific and industrial applications, ranging from climate research to petroleum exploration. It is also a time-consuming task. To produce data, pollen experts spend hours, sometimes months, visually counting thousands of pollen grains from hundreds of images acquired by microscopes. Most current automation of pollen identification ...