Scanning Electron Microscopic Observation on Pollen Grains of 17 Northern Fujian Tea Germplasms

Objective Morphology of pollen grains of tea germplasms from northern Fujian were examined under a scanning electron microscope to differentiate the genetic relationships among the species.

Method Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) was used to observe the microstructures of the pollens of 17 tea germplasms collected from Jianou, Wuyishan, and Jianyang in the province. ImageJ 1.48 V was employed to measure the pollens and colpi on them. Morphological indexes were clustered and determined for principal components using SPSS software.

Result The pollens were all tricorporate of the N3P4C5 type with sizes ranging between 1014.01 μm² and 222.26 μm². They were of 4 equatorial shapes, i.e., oblate spheroid, prolate, oval, and super-prolate, with germination colpi 12.6-35.49 μm in length. The cluster and quantitative analyses classified the 17 germplasms into two categories according to the germination colpus length, germination colpus length/polar axis length ratio, polar plane view, equatorial plane view, and outer wall pattern of the pollens.

Conclusion The 17 germplasms were classified into two categories with 5 determinant differentiating morphological indicators of the pollen grains.