2022 Volume 91 Issue 3 Pages 276-285
Low temperature negatively affects pollen germination in many species, but artificial pollination can help alleviate these negative effects. With ongoing environmental changes, it is important to select pollinizers with pollen that has superior germination properties at lower temperatures. To select candidate cultivars for a new Pyrus pollinizer for pollen with superior germination properties at low temperatures, in vitro pollen germination was studied in 129 Pyrus plants. The highest germination percentage for most Pyrus plants was observed at 25.0°C and was < 20% at 10.0°C. However, ‘Narayoshinokoboku’, ‘Imamuranatsu’, and ‘Tosanashi’ showed a higher germination rate than the other Pyrus plants at 10.0°C, and the germination percentage rates of three plants were > 30%. The fruit setting percentage of the cultivars ‘Kosui’, ‘Hosui’, and ‘Gold-Nijisseiki’ were > 85% by pollination using these three selected cultivars in an open field. In addition, S-genotyping in selected cultivars was determined as follows: ‘Tosanashi’ (S1S7), ‘Imamuranatsu’ (S1S12), and ‘Narayoshinokoboku’ (S1S9). From these results, we concluded that all three cultivars showed cross-compatibility in most pear cultivars of the four major Japanese pear cultivars. The percentage of flower bud formation in ‘Tosanashi’ was > 50%, and the amount of pollen from ‘Narayoshinokoboku’ was more than double the amount of ‘Chojuro’. By assessing the chilling requirement in selected cultivars, a safe area for growth for each cultivar was evaluated as all areas with the exception of the Kyushu and Shikoku regions, based on the ongoing progress of global warming (average daily temperature increase of 3.7°C). In conclusion, we selected ‘Narayoshinokoboku’ and ‘Tosanashi’ as new Pyrus pollinizers because they combine the advantages of low-temperature germinability and high pollen load.
