Pollen Study in Two Improved Varieties of Manihot esculenta Crantz

This study was carried out to investigate the suitability of the pollen grains of two improved vitamin A fortified Cassava varieties, grown in southern Nigeria, as male parents for improving indigenous cultivars. To do this, male flowers from two improved cassava accessions were collected, namely: Umucas 44 and TMS 96/0603. The fertility of the pollen was assessed using acetocarmine stain. The pollen sizes were also measured using a graduated eyepiece and counted. The data were submitted to analysis of variance at 5% probability. Pollen fertility results obtained using the aceto-carmine method shows that TMS 96/0603 has a slightly higher Pollen fertility count with mean value of 97.5% than Umucas 44 with a mean value of 93.9%. Both plant species showed pollen fertility above 90% percent. TMS 96/0603 also showed a higher percentage (37.5%) of large pollen size (130-150µm) than Umucas 44 (17.6%), thus making it a potential male parent for sexual polyploidization in cassava. There was no significant difference in pollen fertility (p>0.05) among the replicates. Keywords: Vitamin A fortified cassava varieties, pollen fertility, pollen size, pollen count. DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/9-1-01 Publication date: January 31 st 2022