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Correlational analysis of halotolerant palynomorphs peculiarities by integrating morphological and morphometric characterization using scanning electron microscopy

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Abstract

Pollen analysis of halophytes is crucial for their accurate identification and taxonomic classification within respective families. This study aimed to highlight the systematic pollen analysis of 15 dominant halotolerant species from twelve families collected in the Kalabagh Salt Range, Pakistan. Light microscopic (LM) and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) techniques were used to examine the pollen’s discriminative traits that support the phenetic grouping and morphometric differentiation among halotolerant taxa. Pollen exine sculpture varied from punctate, verrucate, microechinate, perforate, to reticulate. Pollen shape also exhibited variance ranging from oblate-spheroidal (4 spp.), prolate (3 spp.), prolate-spheroidal (3 spp.), subprolate (3 spp.), Oblate (1 sp.) to spheroidal (1 sp.). The high pollen viability value of Euphorbia caducifolia (92.75%) describes its ecological adaptation to a saline environment. Principal component (PCA) and cluster analysis were used to analyze pollen morphometric data, revealing strong affinities among the studied halotolerant. Morpho pollinic traits, combined with advanced systematic tools, are crucial for identifying lineages within morphogroup taxa and may contribute to the taxonomic position of halotolerant plant species.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge and appreciate the Ongoing Research Funding Program (ORF-2025-637), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 45320, Pakistan

    Moona Nazish & Asif Kamal

  2. Department of Botany, University of Science and Technology, Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 28100, Pakistan

    Muhammad Zubair

  3. Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Punjab, 40100, Pakistan

    Masood Hussain Shah

  4. Department of Botany, University of Karachi, Karachi, 75600, Pakistan

    Musadiq Manzoor

  5. Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 21300, Pakistan

    Rabia Masood

  6. Department of Biology, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan

    Fozia Bibi

  7. Department of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Agriculture, Food Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Manal Abdulaziz Binobead

  8. Department of Electronic Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, 38541, Republic of Korea

    Muhammad Tahir Naseem

Authors

  1. Moona Nazish
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  2. Muhammad Zubair
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  3. Masood Hussain Shah
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  4. Musadiq Manzoor
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  5. Rabia Masood
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  6. Fozia Bibi
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  7. Asif Kamal
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  8. Manal Abdulaziz Binobead
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  9. Muhammad Tahir Naseem
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Contributions

MN. Original draft preparation, conceptualization, design the work, resources, methodology, supervision, project administration, data interpretation, approved data presentation, softwares, and field survey. MZ. formal analysis, draft reviewing, validation. MHS. Visualization, presentation of submitted work, draft reviewing, investigation. MM. Formal analysis, methodology, validation. RM. Formal analysis, draft reviewing and editing. FB. Visualization, investigation, draft reviewing, data collection. AK. Methodology, contribution to design work, data collection, draft reviewing and editing, data interpretation, field survey, statistical analysis. MAB. Draft reviewing, resources, funding acquisition, formal analysis. MTN. Visualization, investigation, draft reviewing, editing, presentation of the submitted work. All authors agree with the final version of the manuscript.

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Moona Nazish, Muhammad Zubair or Muhammad Tahir Naseem.

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Nazish, M., Zubair, M., Shah, M.H. et al. Correlational analysis of halotolerant palynomorphs peculiarities by integrating morphological and morphometric characterization using scanning electron microscopy.
Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38101-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38101-w

Keywords

  • Halotolerant plant species
  • Multivariate analysis
  • Palynology
  • Salinity
  • Scanning electron microscopy

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