Ginkgo Beyond Home: How Egypt’s Climate Shapes Its Pollen and Phenotypes | InformativeBD

Wafaa K. Taia, Selim Z. Heneidy, Laila M. Bidak, Amal M. Fakhry,  and Soliman M. Toto, from the different institute  of Egypt. wrote a Research Article about, Ginkgo Beyond Home: How Egypt’s Climate Shapes Its Pollen and Phenotypes. Entitled, Ecological acclimation on the pheno-characters of Ginkgo biloba L. outside its native range: Perspective to pollen grains, Egypt.  This research paper published by the Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences | JBES. an open access scholarly research journal on Biodiversity. under the affiliation of the International Network For Natural Sciences| INNSpub. an open access multidisciplinary research journal publisher.

Abstract

A fertile branch at three meters high was chosen from a 25-year-old Ginkgo biloba male tree for this investigation. The tree was examined daily to record the suitable time of mature yellow catkins (male cone), which was in April 2023. Pollen grains from the mid catkin from the nine fertile nodes beside those collected from the four Earths directions have been examined carefully by both the light and Scanning electron microscopes. Element contents have been investigated within the different pollen stages. The data obtained revealed that most of the investigated pollen pheno-characters showed highly significant differences between the catkin developmental stages and in between the different positions in each catkin stage, except within few characters. Despite the state of differences recorded within the different positions of the catkins there were highly significant differences between the different nine stages of the catkin position. This investigation showed that G. biloba trees growing in Alexandria city are adapted to the city climate and release their pollen grains gradually to ensure successful pollination. The microsporangia mature gradually; accordingly, their pollen grains are in different developmental and hydrolytic states. The obtained results proved the high adaptation processes which are shown in both the phenol-morphological states beside their mineral contents of the G. biloba pollen grains.

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Introduction

Ginkgo biloba is a mysterious tree; it is the oldest living gymnosperm tree which overcomes much generic extinction, and it is the only species still adapt with all the environmental disorders from the Ginkgophyta (Zhou & Zheng, 2003). It is considered as a unique tree in many aspects, it occupies its unique taxonomic division, class, order, family and genus with great genetic distances with its relatives beside its important food content, and medicinal values. This species is considered a living fossil as it overcomes many global catastrophes and adapts with great environmental and climate changes. This species has many forms of adaptation which made it modulate with the environmental disturbance meanwhile it has its specific way of fertilization. It produces huge amounts of light pollen grains to succeed its anemophilous mode of pollination. G. biloba pollens carried inside microsporangia in subsequent degrees of development to insure long fertile time (Lu et al., 2016). After pollen dispersal, the pollen grain releases water and becomes typically folded inwards in its aperture or leptoma to keep the exposed aperture area in hydrated state (Hesse et al., 2009). Worth noticing that the shape of dry pollen grains after dispersal is bilaterally symmetrical with monosulcate wide aperture and nearly smooth exine ornamentation (Lu et al. 2011a). After hydration with the pollination drop, the pollen converts into a round shape (Tekleva et al., 2007). This pollen shape change is considered as a mode of adaptation to keep more pollen grains in fertile and hydrated form.

Trees of G. biloba are native to China and introduced to Japan, Europe, and North America (Del Tredici 1991 & 2000; Tsumura et al., 1992). Its trees are commonly planted in the parks as ornamentals for their woody trunk and characteristic leaves. The trees are dioecious i.e., the female megasporangia carried in trees separate from those who carried the microsporangia. The microsporangia are carried in an inflorescence called catkin. The catkins originated from the axils of the leaves on short shoots and their numbers differ from node to another. Each sporangiophore consists of a stalk and sterile extension which bears two pendant pollen sacs and release their pollens by the aid of longitudinal slit (Klimko et al., 2016).

Pollen morphological characteristics have been studied in detail as they are essential for successful fertilization and reproduction in G. biloba. This study presents information on aspects of pollen development of G. biloba, which are relevant to understanding its ecological characteristics as an introduced species in Egypt. Meanwhile to find out how much the catkin-like developmental stages affect the pollen morphological characters and its hydration state which in turn affect its fertility to help in the process of the species conservation and reproduction. In addition, to highlighting the special strategy of G. biloba to acclimate with environmental factors outside its native range with respect to pollen grain characters.

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Article source : Ecological acclimation on the pheno-characters of Ginkgo biloba L. outside its native range:Perspective to pollen grains, Egypt