Spikelet movements, anther extrusion and pollen production in wheat cultivars with contrasting tendencies to cleistogamy.

The cleistogamic and chasmogamic wheat cultivars differ significantly in the potential for pollen dispersion for cross-pollination, which is mainly related to anther extrusion capacity. Although none of these features differentiated the cultivars clearly, we assume, based on spikelet kinetics and the lack of lemmas surface deformation, that the water transport and turgor of cells is essential for the floret opening and anther extrusion in wheat. The search for parental ideotype should be supported by marker assisted selection, e.g. based of polymorphisms in genes related to aquaporin biosynthesis.