Pollen-pistil interactions: Four alder species after selfing and crossing

Abstract

In sexually reproducing plant species, the prevailing breeding system is of enormous importance in determining the patterns of group variation and subsequent race and species formation. The breeding system regulates the limits of the breeding population and the extent to which hybridization occurs. The breeding system in a species is governed by certain reproductive isolating mechanisms, which may be effective at many levels.

One level at which isolation is operative is the interaction of pistil and pollen. In this case, pollen may be preferentially inhibited from germinating or growing in the pistil of a particular type. This phenomenon has long been studied in the widely occurring case of self-incompatibility.

Citation

Millar, Constance I. 1977. Pollen-pistil interactions: Four alder species after selfing and crossing. Seattle, WA: University of Washington. 92 p. B.S. thesis.