ANTHER CAROTENOIDS AND SYNTHESIS OF SPOROPOLLENIN

SHAW et al.1-3 are at present carrying out valuable new work on the chemistry of resistant spore wall materials of the general class of sporopollenins following the pioneer studies of Zetzsche's group in the 1930s4. Shaw and Yeadon1,2 have concluded, from observations on the pollen of Pinus sylvestris and Lycopodium clavatum, that sporopollenin contains a lignin-like fraction of 10-25 per cent and a lipid fraction of 75-90 per cent. They have explained the lack of reactivity of the lignin component by the suggestion that it is masked by the lipid moiety, or present in some unusual combination. Brooks and Shaw3 have proposed that the precursors of sporopollenin in the anthers of Lilium henryi are carotenoids, and that the exine is formed by oxidative polymerization of the mixture of carotenoids and carotenoid esters contained in the anther material. © 1968 Nature Publishing Group.