POLLEN VIABILITY, GERMINATION AND TUBE GROWTH: A POWERFUL TOOL TO BIOMONITOR AND ASSESS TRACE ELEMENT CYTOTOXICITY

none2ABSTRACT Pollen is an extremely simplified organism whose crucial task is to produce and convey the male gametes to the egg cell for fertilization. It represents a suitable tool for chemical toxicity investigations. Pollen-based assays represent an easy and sensitive in vitro test of toxicity at the cellular level. We examined the in vitro response of kiwifruit pollen tubes to increasing concentrations of Cr, As, and Pd, assuming tube growth inhibition as an endpoint for determining potential cytotoxicity and expressing the inhibitory effect as a numerical value (EC50). On the other hand, pollen quality can be assumed as a sensitive indicator of heavy metal pollution, which affects pollen developmental processes. We found appreciable differences in pollen quality in vivo, significantly related to major trace metals of the area studied. Thus, pollen represents a potentially good biomonitoring system. It also offers the advantages of large populations, rapid testing, easy storage, and relatively low cost.(invited plenary lecture)noneV. Scoccianti; A. SperanzaV. Scoccianti; A. Speranz