• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.2 no.5
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• pp.460-467
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• 2018

Three-dimensional (3D) refractive-index (RI) imaging and quantitative analyses of angiosperm pollen grains are presented. Using optical diffraction tomography, the 3D RI structures of individual angiosperm pollen grains were measured without using labeling or other preparation techniques. Various physical quantities including volume, surface area, exine volume, and sphericity were determined from the measured RI tomograms of pollen grains. Exine skeletons, the distinct internal structures of angiosperm pollen grains, were identified and systematically analyzed.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.75-80
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• 2013

The morphological features of pollen grains collected from the broad-leaved and cylindrical-leaved Portulaca species of the Hawaiian Islands were investigated. The variation in size and surface pattern were examined using scanning electron microscopy and statistical analysis. Pollens of the Portulaca were apolar grains of monads exhibiting apertures, colpi, and relatively thin echini. Of particular interest was the differing size of pollen grains among the species studied. Pollens of the broad-leaved Portulaca were considerable in size with a length of about $73{\sim}86{\mu}m$, while the cylindrical-leaved Portulaca tended to have smaller pollen grains ranging from 50~65 in diameter. The smallest pollens were found in cultivar 2 having an average of $43{\mu}m$. The pollen was intectate, and the exine surface appeared granulous, having sculptured elements of spinules and puncta. Two types of puncta were discerned; one forming an operculum, and the other, a simple perforation. Numerous spinules and small puncta were found throughout the cylindrical-leaved Portulaca. In the present study, morphological features of pollen grains from ten Hawaiian Portulaca species, including endemic and unknown taxa, revealed the aforementioned pattern of variation. This paper aim to provide morphological information that could be of phylogenetic value within the Hawaiian Portulaca.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.65-71
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• 2013

Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) pollinosis is the most popular pollinosis in Japan. It has been reported that Cryptomeria japonica pollen allergenic species are suspended as fine particles in the urban atmosphere. These allergenic fine particles are responsible for inducing asthma by breaking into the lower respiratory tract. It has also been found that pollinosis symptoms on the sufferers appear mainly at night-time by the results from epidemiological studies. However, the exact reason for these phenomena is not yet clarified. In this study, the diurnal and nocturnal behaviours of Cryptomeria japonica pollen grains and their allergenic species in the urban area of Saitama city of Kanto Plain were investigated. Airborne pollen grains and allergenic Cry j 1 concentrations in total suspended particulate matter (TSP) were investigated at two sampling sites, a heavy traffic road (roadside site) and at the balcony of the $10^{th}$ floor of the Building of Research and Project of Saitama University (general urban site). The latter sampling site where located about 300 m away from the roadside site was used as a general urban site unaffected by automobile traffic. The airborne pollen counts were measured with a real-time pollen monitor. Cry j 1 particles were collected with two high volume air samplers, and these concentrations were measured by surface plasmon resonance method with a Biacore J system. The diurnal variation of the airborne pollen counts was similar to the trends of temperature and wind speed during the day-time; whereas its tendency with wind speed trend was not observed during the night-time. Airborne pollen counts were lower with northern wind than with southern wind because the pollen comes from the mountainous areas, and the mountains in the south are closer, about half the distance to the northern mountains. It is suggested that the peaks of airborne pollen counts during night-time in the sampling site occurred by transport of pollen grains released during day-time in the mountainous forest areas, located c.a. 100 km away from the sampling site. On the roadside site the allergenic Cry j 1 concentrations were higher than at the general urban site, nevertheless pollen grains counts were lower. These results suggested that worsening of pollinosis symptoms during night-time in urban area was caused by transport of pollen grains during day-time in the mountainous forest areas. Moreover, pollen allergenic species become different morphology from pollen grain at roadside site, and the subsequent pollen grains re-suspension by automobile traffic.

• Plant Resources
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.87-90
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• 2005

In tobacco, in vitro pollination has been successfully applied to overcome interspecific incompatibility. The use of this technique will make it possible to introduce DNA into pollen tubes just before fertilization. In this study, we showed improvement of the efficiency of in vitro self-pollination and introduction of foreign genes into pollen tubes by the method of polycation. A plasmid harbouring the GUS gene was introduced into pollen grains and pollen tubes, which had incubated on pollen germination medium(PGM), by polyornithine method. Transient expression of the GUS in pollen grains and pollen tubes that were treated with 0, 2, 5 and $10{\mu}g/m\ell$ DNA was observed. In results, combination of the techniques of polyornithine and in vitro pollination was efficient new technique for genetic transformation through fertilization processes.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.155-161
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• 1977

Pollinosis usually caused by the airborne pollen grains, is an allergical disease which causes snivel and sneeze. The author has studied on airborne pollen grains collected at Chong-ro district in Seoul about 15m from April 1975 to March 1976. The obtained grains were 4 spp. of Gymnospermae, 19 spp. of Dicotyledoneae and 10 spp. of Monocotyledoneae. The tree season ranged from March to June, Alnus, Pinus and Acer were prevalent. The grass season ranged from May to October, Gramineae were prevalent. The weed season ranged from August, Artemisia were prevalent and ragweed was found.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.101-106
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• 2019

A pollen morphological study was conducted using light and scanning electron microscopy involving six species belonging to the subtribe Neoguillauminiinae. Pollen samples from the six species are tricolporate, and the colpi are surrounded by broad margo, with the widest width in the equator, narrower toward the pole, and rounded at the end. Based on the pollen morphology, pollen of the species in the subtribe Neoguillauminiinae were divided into four types: the Neoguillauminia type (T1), the C. collinus type (T2), the C. casuarinoides type (T3) and the C. paucifolius type (T4). The generic divergence between Neoguillauminia and Calycopeplus was supported by the pollen characters of the size, amb and lumina shape. In particular, the traits of rounded shape in the outline of the polar view and circular lumina, which appear only in the pollen grains of N. cleopatra, support the recognition of Neoguillauminia as a monotypic genus. Calycopeplus oligandrus and C. paucifolius had the same reticulate pattern of pollen grains, supporting Forster's hypothesis that these two species are closely related. On the other hand, the close relationship between the morphologically similar C. collinus and C. casuarinoides was not supported by the pollen characters. Within the subtribe there are two equally parsimonious hypotheses regarding the evolution of exine characters. The first consists of two changes of microreticulate through parallel evolution from the primitive reticulate exine, and the second is that the microreticulate pattern is differentiated from the reticulate state and then reversed to reticulate pollen grains.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.371-379
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• 2011

To determine the peak dispersal times of allergenic pollen grains in Ulsan, Korea, we performed continuous airborne pollen counts at three stations (Sts. A, B, and C) in Ulsan from August 2009 to November 2010. Pollen grains were sampled using a Durham sampler. Two peak pollen dispersal seasons were observed per year. The peak seasons generally coincided with the flowering period of anemophilous trees: Taxodiaceae (February), Alnus (March), Cupressaceae (April), Quercus, and Pinus (May), and with the flowering phase of herbs from August to November, e.g., Humulus, Artemisia, Gramineae, and Ambrosia from August through September. The highest concentration of airborne pollen was from Pinus (68%), followed by Quercus (15%), Alnus (6%), and Humulus (2%); whereas very low pollen concentrations were from Taxodiaceae, Cupressaceae, Artemisia, Gramineae, and Ambrosia (${\leq}$ 1% of the annual total airborne pollen concentration). Our findings indicate that Alnus and Humulus pollen are major allergens whereas those of Pinus and Quercus are minor allergens. The concentration of Alnus pollen grains at St. C was over five times that at Sts. A and B. This finding implies that individuals living at or near St. C are exposed to high concentrations of Alnus pollen before and after March, which is the flowering period of the alder tree. From August to September, individuals living at or near St. B are exposed to high concentrations of Humulus pollen. Our study suggests that Alnus pollen may be the major aeroallergen causing pollinosis in the spring at St. C and Humulus pollen may be the major aeroallergen in autumn at St. B.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.191-198
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• 2013

Cryptomeria japonica pollen is the most common pollen, which are scattering during each spring season in Japan. Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) pollinosis is one of seasonal allergic rhinitis that mainly occurs in Japan. In addition, long range transportation of Yellow Sand from the East Asian continent was also found during the pollen scattering seasons in Japan. Therefore, the interaction or impact between pollen and Yellow Sand should be concerned. In this study, our objective was to investigate the airborne behaviour of Cryptomeria japonica pollen grains and its size-segregated allergenic (Cry j 1) particles as the airborne tracer of Cryptomeria japonica pollen during the Yellow Sand events. Airborne Cryptomeria japonica pollen grains and its size-segregated allergenic particles were collected at roadside of urban residential zones of Saitama city during the pollination periods from February to March in two year investigation of 2009 and 2010. The overlap of Yellow Sand events and dispersal peak of pollen grains was observed. According to the Meteorological data, we found that the peaks of airborne pollen grains appeared under higher wind speed and temperature than the previous day. It was thought that Yellow Sand events and airborne pollen counts were related to wind speed. From the investigation of the airborne behavior of the size-segregated allergen particles by determining Cry j 1 with Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), the higher concentrations of the allergenic Cry j 1 were detected in particle size equal to or less than $1.1{\mu}m$($PM_{1.1}$) than other particle sizes during Yellow Sand events, especially in the rainy day. We conclude that rainwater trapping Yellow Sand is one of the important factors that affect the release of allergenic pollen species of Cry j 1. Therefore, it is very important to clarify the relationships between Cryptomeria japonica pollen allergenic species and chemical contents of the Yellow Sand particles in further studies.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.174-177
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• 2004

A method of collection and long-term storage of viable lily (Lilium longiflorum) pollen grains were developed for their in vitro growth and transformation in consistency. Petroleum ether, n-heptane, cyclohexane and benzene, as pollen collection medium, were determined less toxic to pollen growth in vitro than others tested. Pollen grains, however, lost their growth activity if stored in these solvents more than a week, So, a serial performance, that is, pollen grain collection in these solvents, air-drying and immediate transfer to low temperature condition was determined desirable for keeping the viability much longer. Pollen grains from this storage showed a successful transformation in vitro with a cDNA encoding tissue plasminogen activator (TPA) protein using Agrobacterium via vacuum infiltration according to western blotting analysis.

• Journal of Species Research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.159-168
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• 2015

Although airborne pollen is invisible to the eye, it has been known as a major source to respiratory allergic reactions. For this reason, airborne pollen is monitoring in many countries to predict pollen concentration based on locality and season. However, the morphological characteristics of airborne pollen and their potential tendency as an allergen are still obscure. In the present study, we selected 52 airborne pollen samples based on previously reported data and investigated their detail pollen characteristics using LM and SEM. Major airborne pollen in Korea has sorted in 19 families (most angiosperms except four gymnosperm families), and all pollen grains are small to medium in size ($P=17.34-49.86{\mu}m$) apart from the bisaccate pollen grains of Pinaceae ($P=46.49-106.20{\mu}m$). The aperture number and shape vary from sulcate to polyporate. While the inaperture pollen has found only in gymnosperm (Cupressaceae and Taxaceae), triporate or polyporate is common pollen type in angiosperm. The sexine ornamentations could divide into several types, but the most sculpturing types are inconspicuous like psilate, rugulate and granulate. Reticulate pollen grains as a semitectum have occurred the species of genera Platanus and Fraxinus only. To estimate the possible relationships between pollen features and allergen, the results are discussed in botanical context.