Re: Shape by genetics & pollination

I am answering 2 messages here.
pumpkins@mallorn.com wrote:
> 
> I can hardly see any pollen on the female after a day of bee
> activity.
  The pollen grains are too small for me to see. What I see is usually a
cluster of grains. Stigmas are covered with a glue which grabs the
pollen grains and supplies the sugar (sucrose, I think) needed to
trigger germination of the pollen grain.
  I usually use 7x to study pollen, but a manifying glass may be
adequate. The stigma is pretty sturdy. In corn, we often cut off 5
inches of silk so we can get the pollen onto all the silks.
  I made a rough count and a field pumpkin sized AG anther (whole thing)
has about 15K pollen grains and a huge anther has twice that. Over
pollination seems unlikely. A corn pollen bag often contains a teaspoon
of pollen and I pour the whole thing on the silk or use it to pollinate
100 females. 
--
  Bees carry the pollen in baskets which I think is an arrangement of
hairs. I need to cool a loaded bee and look at it. 
  Genetics is important in the shape of fruit, else we would not be able
to look at a fruit and know the variety. However, as you said, the
environment is very important and that is the biggest surprise I had in
my embryology class in college. In animals, a competent tissue must be
next to a proper tissue to develop normally. Still, a nerve may grow
above a blood vessel in one person and below in another. 
  Concerning different shapes of pumpkins on the same vine, remember it
is possible in a given fruit a locus may of puffed (did its job at a
slight different time). Also most enzymes have optimum temperatures and
a temperature difference made a shape difference in insect mutants I
discovered. Also some genes get lost in plants. Every cell normally has
the full set of genes, but some cells don't.

-- 
Harold Eddleman Ph.D. Microbiologist.       i*@disknet.com



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