Response of pollen to heat stress

The effect of elevated temperatures on protein synthesis in pollen from Petunia hybrida and Lilium longiflorum was investigated and compared with their effect in root-tissue tissue of Petunia. The results demonstrate that the incorporation of [35-S] methionine into protein does not change in pollen incubated at temperatures up to 40 °C, but decreased with 65% at 45 °C as compared to incorporation at 27 °C. The qualitative changes that occurred for the proteins synthesized at 27° and 40 °C were not identical for pollen from Petunia and Lilium. The proteins synthesized at 21° and 40 °C were very similar within one species. None of the changes in proteins synthesized at 40°C in pollen showed any correlation with heat shock proteins formed in rootlets from Petunia.