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Comparative structure of the pollen in species of Passiflora: insights from the pollen wall and cytoplasm contents

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Abstract

Pollen grains of three Brazilian species of Passiflora (P. elegans, P. suberosa and P. haematostigma) belonging to different subgenera were studied with respect to the wall and cytoplasm. New data were obtained on pollen wall histochemistry, cytoplasm contents and organelle inheritance. The structure of the pollen wall layers differed in all the species; P. elegans shares characters with those found in other species from the same subgenus. The exine foot layer is structured and evident only in P. haematostigma and is not structured in P. elegans. The pollen grains have pollenkitt with lipid components. The cytoplasm of the vegetative cell contains dissolved and non-dissolved polysaccharides. The generative cell contains plastids and mitochondria in all the species analyzed, and consequently has the potential for paternal or biparental extranuclear inheritance. Aspects of the evolution of the characters of the species are discussed in the light of a recent phylogeny of the group, with a focus on the three subgenera.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Armando Carlos Cervi and Greta Aline Dettke for collecting P. haematostigma in the field, and the Centro de Microscopia Eletrônica (CME-UFRGS) for making the equipment available. This article is part of the PhD thesis of the first author, carried out with the support of a CAPES doctoral scholarship. The project was supported by CNPq-Proc. 305289/2008-0, 480622/2007-8, 474132/2003-4 and 300822/2005-7.

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  1. Departamento de Botânica, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500, Porto Alegre, 91501-970, Brazil

    Adriano Silvério & Jorge Ernesto de Araujo Mariath

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  1. Adriano Silvério
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  2. Jorge Ernesto de Araujo Mariath
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Correspondence to Jorge Ernesto de Araujo Mariath.

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Silvério, A., de Araujo Mariath, J.E. Comparative structure of the pollen in species of Passiflora: insights from the pollen wall and cytoplasm contents. Plant Syst Evol 300, 347–358 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-013-0887-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-013-0887-6

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