The purpose of bagging during artificial hybridization is to protect the stigma of the female parent flower from unwanted or foreign pollen grains, ensuring controlled pollination.
Bagging, a crucial step in artificial hybridization, involves covering the emasculated flower (female parent) or the flower to be pollinated with a suitable bag, usually made of paper, cloth, or cellophane. This process has several critical functions:
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Preventing Unintended Pollination: The primary goal is to prevent open pollination by airborne pollen or pollen carried by insects. This ensures that only the desired pollen is used for fertilization.
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Maintaining Purity of Cross: By preventing contamination, bagging maintains the genetic integrity of the cross, allowing breeders to produce offspring with predictable traits.
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Creating a Controlled Environment: The bag provides a barrier against external factors like rain, wind, and insects that could damage the flower or introduce unwanted pollen.
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Protecting Pollen (in some cases): In cases where the male parent flower is bagged, it protects the anthers (pollen-producing parts) from shedding pollen prematurely due to rain or wind, and ensures the pollen collected is pure.
The Process of Bagging and Rebagging:
- Emasculation: The anthers (male reproductive parts) are removed from the flower of the female parent before they release pollen.
- Bagging: The emasculated flower is then covered with a bag to prevent unwanted pollination.
- Pollination: When the stigma (female receptive part) is receptive, pollen from the desired male parent is collected and dusted onto the stigma.
- Rebagging: Immediately after pollination, the flower is rebagged to prevent any further contamination and to protect the developing fruit and seeds.
- Tagging: A tag is attached to the flower/fruit, providing crucial details like the date of pollination, the parents involved, and other relevant information for tracking the cross.
In summary, bagging is an essential technique in plant breeding that ensures controlled pollination, preventing contamination and allowing breeders to create specific hybrids with desired characteristics. Without bagging, the intended cross could be compromised, leading to unpredictable results and hindering breeding efforts.
