.: III,TPACT OF.AGRO.CHEMICALS ON IN VITRO POLLEN GERMINATION OF CROTALARI A M E DI CAGI N E A VAR. LUXURIANS
G. B. KULK:ARNI AND T. SRINIVASU
Botany Department, lnstitute of Science, Aurangabad - 431 OO4.
Crotalaria medicaginea vat. luxurians ppm of Glyphosate. Similarly, at respec-
(Fabaceae) is a common weed, growing tive doses of Goal, the percentage was luxuriantly in the crop fields and vacant 25.64, 19.02, 13.08 and 5.25, The in- sites in Marathwada region of Maharashtra. hibitory dose for pollen germination was It causes loss of yield of Jowar and Ground- 8OO ppm of Goal. From the foregoing re- nut crops. The pollen tube formation is an sults, it was obvious that the perdentage important step i'n fei'tilization and embryo of pollen germination decreased as the formation, which ultimately leads to seed concentration of agro-chemicals went up setting. This weed is sexually reproducing and percentages were less than control. plant and sets a large number of seeds. The pollen grains did not germinate at 2500 Hence, it was thought worthwhile to study ppm of Atrazine, 100O ppm of Sodium salt the effect of agro-chemicals on in vitro of 2,4.D, B0O'ppm of Goal and 6O0 ppm pollen germination to arrest pollen germi- of Glyphosate. Hence, these are consid- nation and pollen tube growth. ered as inhibitory doses. Further, it is clear from the results that the Glyphosate was The pollen grains oJ the weed were col- found to be the most efficient among four lected by testing anthers on a slide. The agro-chemicals studied. Gentle and hanging drop technique (Vasil, 1960) was Galtangner- (1 97 21 studied tfie ettect ot' 32 adopted fol pollen germination. The pollen commercial formulations pesticides inctud- grairis were germinated in various concen- ing 2,4-D on in vitro pollen germination in trations of freshly prepared Sodium salt of Petunia hybrida and reported that the ma- 2,4-D (1O0-1O00 ppm), Glyphosate (100- jority of them reduced the pollen germina- 6OO'ppm), Atrazine 1tO0-25O0 ppm) and tion and a few of them inhibited germina- Goal (100-800 ppm) and observations tion totally. Patil (1978) obtained inhibi- were made. Similarly, pollen germination ti6'n of 'pollen " tube f ormation in was also studied in distilled water as con- Catharantheus rosea with 2,41-D. Srinivasu trol. Ttris work was carried out during Au- and Bakale (1989) observed the inhibition gust and Septernber, 1 995 in the labora- of pollen germination and tube formation tory under controlled conditions. in Parthenium hysterophorus Linn. bV 2,4-D and other agro-chemicals. Jain (1993) The germination percentage of pollen studied the inhibition of pollen germination of this weed was 34.72 in control. lt was in Chenopodium album by Glyphosate and 24.14, 17.79, 10.82,7.72,3.54 and 0.00 2,4-D. Gopal (1993) found 2,4-D and Goal at 100, 2OO, 4OO,600, 800 and 1000 inhibited pollen germination totally at 10 ppm of Sodium salt of 2, 4-D respectively. and 60 ppm,'respectively in Medicago sativa. At 100, 500, 1000, 1 500, 2000 and 2500 microns at 100, 200, 400, 600 and 800 ppm of Atrazine, the ,percentage was ppm of Sodium salt of 2,4-D, respectively" 25.39, 22.51, 20.24, 13.56, 6.07 and ln Glyphosate, it was 0.71, 0.58, O.42 and 0.00, respectively. The percentage was 0.28 microns at 1OO, 2OO, 400 and 5O0 20.09, 16.83, 1 1 .31 and 0.00 respectively ppm, respectively. At 100, 500, 1000 and at 100, 200, 400 and 600 1500 ppm of Atrazine, the pollen tube 149 IMPACT OF AGRO.CHEMICALS length was 1 .11, 1.33, 0.76 and 0.71 Authors are grateful to the Director, tn- microns, respectively. The pollen tube stitute of Science, Aurangabad, for pro- length was too small to be measured at viding research facilities. They are also 2000 ppm of Atrazine. The length was thankfulto Prof. R. M. Pai for going through 0.74, 0.66, 0.49 and 0.30 microns at 1OO, the manuscript. 200, 400 and 600 ppm of Goal, respec- tively as against 1.53 microns in control. The maximum reduction in pollen tube length was observed in Glyphosate, Goal REFERENCES and Sodium salt of 2,4-D in decreasing order. However, the increase in pollen tube Choudhary. B. & P. V.George,l g62Indian length was noticed till400 ppm of Sodium J. Horticulture 19 : 14. salt of 2,4-D and 500 ppm of Atrazine from the initial doses and then reduced at higher Gentle, A. G. & K. J. Gallangher, 1972 concentrations. J. Econ. Ent. 65: 488. Gopal, K. R. 1993 P/,.D. Thesis, Nagpur Abnormalities like bursting of poilen Univ., Nagpur. tube at their tips was noticed rarely in con- trol; maximum at 50 ppm of Sodium salt Jain, S. B. 1993 Ph.D.Thesis, Nagpur Univ., of 2,4-D and Goal and 25 and 5O ppm of Nagpur. Glyphosate and Atrazine. This might be due to change in pH, turgor pressure or exten- Patil, G.V. 1978 The Botaniqueg (1-4) : 73. sibility of pollen grains and poilen tubes. Choudhary and George (1962! in Brinjal, Patil, G. V. & S. A. Rahman, 1g7B IVInt. Patil and Rahman'(1 978) in Margmia annua, Palyol. Conf,, Lucknow, 4O7. Srinivasu and Bakale (1g8g) in parthenium hysterophoru,r, Jain (1993) in Chenopodium Srinivasu, T. & V. L. Bakalei I ggg Ad. plant album and Gopal (1993) in Medicago sativa Sci.2l2l :297. reported similar bursting of poilen tube caused by different herbicides. Further- Vasil, l. K. 1960 Amer.J.Bot.4l:23g. mbre, sWelling of pollen tube tip and tube, curvature was observed at 100, 20O and 400 ppm of Goal, respectively.