Cycads are the most endangered of plant groups based on IUCN Red List assessments; all are in Appendix I or II of CITES, about 40% are within biodiversity ‘hotspots,’ and the call for action to improve their protection is long-standing. We contend that progress in this direction will not be made until there is better understanding of cycad pollen, seed and tissue biology, which at the moment is limited to relatively few (<10%) species. We review what is known about germplasm (seed and pollen) storage and germination, together with recent developments in the application of contemporary technologies to tissues, such as isotype labelling, biomolecular markers and tissue culture. Whilst progress is being made, we conclude that an acceleration of comparative studies is needed to facilitate the integration of in situ and ex situ conservation programmes to better safeguard endangered cycads.

中文翻译：

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苏铁花粉、种子和组织的比较生物学——植物保护的角度

根据 IUCN 红色名录评估，苏铁是最濒危的植物群；所有这些都在 CITES 附录 I 或 II 中，大约 40% 位于生物多样性“热点”范围内，采取行动改善其保护的呼声由来已久。我们认为，除非对苏铁花粉、种子和组织生物学有了更好的了解，否则在这个方向上不会取得进展，而目前这些知识仅限于相对较少（<10%）的物种。我们回顾了有关种质（种子和花粉）储存和发芽的知识，以及当代技术在组织中应用的最新进展，例如同种型标记、生物分子标记和组织培养。虽然正在取得进展，但我们得出的结论是，需要加速比较研究，以促进就地和迁地保护计划的整合，以更好地保护濒危苏铁植物。