Vol. 11, Issue 9 (2022)

Author(s):
K Sree Vaishnavi, T Saraswathi, T Kalaimagal and L Pugalendhi

Abstract:
Moringa oleifera Lam, belong to a monotypic genius of the family Moringaceae, consider as one of the most beneficial trees currently cultivating all over the tropics of the world due to the nutritional and medicinal value. The pollination behaviour of moringa is found to be highly cross pollinated and pollen is the basic source for gene transfer and recombination in the intraspecific hybrids of moringa. Besides, pollen viability is considered as an important factor for pollen germination and pollen tube penetration in to the sigma. The objective of the present experiment was formulated to compare the effect of different storage temperatures on the pollen viability of intraspecific moringa hybrids. This experiment was carried out with five intraspecific F₁: hybrids viz., H₁: (CBEMO-1 X CBEMO-15) (Annual X Annual), H₂: (CBEMO-1 X CBEMO-29), H₃: (CBEMO-4 X CBEMO-29), H₄: (CBEMO-2 X CBEMO-32), H₅: (CBEMO-4 X CBEMO-29) (Annual X Perennial). The Pollen were collected from the field at the time of anthesis and stored at different temperatures viz., 25 °C, 4 °C, -20 °C and -80 °C to assess the effect of temperature on pollen viability. The storage temperature significantly affects the pollen viability of the intraspecific hybrids. All the F₁ hybrids where, the pollen stored at the low temperature -80 °C at various times showed maximum pollen viability ranged from 83.60 to 94.80. Whereas, the minimum pollen viability at various times was recorded at room temperature 24 °C ranged from 54.20 to 86.20. While, the hybrid H₅: (CBE MO-14 X CBE MO-29) recorded maximum viability 94.80 at various time and the least viability was observed in (CBE MO-2X CBE MO-54.2). The result showed that pollen viability of intraspecific moringa hybrids increases with decreasing temperature with minimum time.