Background

Sesbania sesban is an important fodder species and much agronomic study has been conducted to determine its potential as a livestock feed. However, there might be a need in the future to improve some of the characteristics of this species through breeding. Therefore, developing techniques for the assessment of the viability of pollen grains is a driving force for conducting this type of research.

Pollen grain quality is assessed by both its viability and germination. Pollen grain germination rate is typically evaluated by immersing the pollen grains in aqueous concentrations of sucrose and counting the number of grains that germinate. Pollen grain viability is determined in what is known as a fluorescein diacetate (FDA) solution in which viable grains fluoresce and non-viable grains do not.

There could be a direct relationship between viability and germination at high rates of germination. If so, viability could be tested in future without having to simultaneously test for germination. The experimental approach to be adopted is, therefore, to first determine an optimal sucrose concentration that yields a high germination rate and then to compare viability and germination rates at this sucrose concentration.