Speaker

Dr. Ramajayam Devarajan
Head & Principal Scientist (Horticulture)
ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation,
Research Centre, Koraput, Odisha, India

Assessing pollen viability, grain count, and ploidy status is crucial, particularly in plant species like bananas, where unreduced gametes are common. This information is essential for hybrid development, seed production, and yield prediction. In this webinar, we will describe a rapid method for evaluating pollen viability in various banana cultivars.

We used the CyFlow Cube 6 flow cytometry model with a readily available pollen viability kit from Sysmex. Data on pollen count, viable, and non-viable grains showed a strong positive correlation with conventional staining methods. These results suggest that Flow Cytometry can efficiently assess pollen viability and count in multiple plant species/accessions, saving time and cost.