Pollen viability and germination in Jatropha ribifolia and Jatropha mollissima (Euphorbiaceae): Species with potential for biofuel production

The aim of this work is to assess pollen viability using the staining  technique and in vitro germination with different concentrations of sucrose in Jatropha ribifolia and Jatropha mollissima, contributing to the knowledge of the reproductive biology and subsidizing their conservation,  management and utilization. Pollen viability was measured by dye method. Acetocarmine, acetic orcein and cotton-blue stain were used. The culture medium for pollen germination was solidificated by the addition of 1% agar combined with 0 (control), 10, 20, 30 and 40% of sucrose. The data were submitted to analysis of variance at 5% probability. All dyes used in this experiment allowed easy differentiation between fertileand non fertile pollen. The rate of formation of pollen tubes was higher in medium with 10% of sucrose for both species because the trend is that the sucrose concentration increases the supply of carbon, changes the osmotic potential and inhibits the formation of pollen tube in vitro.Key words: Plant reproduction, male gametophyte, hybridization, germplasm

Planetary population synthesis

In stellar astrophysics, the technique of population synthesis has been successfully used for several decades. For planets, it is in contrast still a young method which only became important in recent years because of the rapid increase of the number of known extrasolar planets, and the associated growth of statistical observational constraints. With planetary population synthesis, the theory of planet formation and evolution can be put to the test against these constraints. In this review of planetary population synthesis, we first briefly list key observational constraints. Then, the work flow in the method and its two main components are presented, namely global end-to-end models that predict planetary system properties directly from protoplanetary disk properties and probability distributions for these initial conditions. An overview of various population synthesis models in the literature is given. The sub-models for the physical processes considered in global models are described: the evolution of the protoplanetary disk, the planets' accretion of solids and gas, orbital migration, and N-body interactions among concurrently growing protoplanets. Next, typical population synthesis results are illustrated in the form of new syntheses obtained with the latest generation of the Bern model. Planetary formation tracks, the distribution of planets in the mass-distance and radius-distance plane, the planetary mass function, and the distributions of planetary radii, semimajor axes, and luminosities are shown, linked to underlying physical processes, and compared with their observational counterparts. We finish by highlighting the most important predictions made by population synthesis models and discuss the lessons learned from these predictions - both those later observationally confirmed and those rejected.Comment: 47 pages, 12 figures. Invited review accepted for publication in the 'Handbook of Exoplanets', planet formation section, section editor: Ralph Pudritz, Springer reference works, Juan Antonio Belmonte and Hans Deeg, Ed