Development of pollen germination medium to test pollen viability of eggplant and its wild species

In this study, we report in vitro pollen germination medium (PGM) for the egg plant and four of its wild species belonging to tertiary gene pool viz., Solanum torvum, S. khasianum, S. trilobatum and S. surrettence. The medium developed by Brewbaker and Kwack has been modified and improved with addition of poly ethylene glycol, ɛ-amino caproic acid etc which supported over 78% pollen germination and pollen tube growth of these species. The complete pollen germination medium for eggplant consists of 20% maltose + 250 mg l−1 Boric acid + 300 mg l−1 Calcium nitrate + 15% PEG 4000 + 750 mg l−1 EACA + 0.5–1% agar at 25 oC temperature for 3h of incubation. During the study, pollen sterility of 8–12% was observed at flowering period invariably in all Solanum species.