scholarly journals Myosin associated with the surfaces of organelles, vegetative nuclei and generative cells in angiosperm pollen grains and tubes

1989 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-325
Author(s):  
J. HESLOP-HARRISON ◽  
Y. HESLOP-HARRISON

Myosin, detected by immunofluorescence using an antibody to bovine skeletal and smooth muscle myosin, has been localised on individual identifiable organelles from the grasses Alopecurus pratensis and Secale cereale, and on the surfaces of vegetative nuclei and generative cells from pollen and pollen tubes of Hyacinthus orientalis and Helleborus foetidus. Taken in conjunction with recent evidence showing that the growing pollen tube contains an actin cytoskeleton consisting of numerous mainly longitudinally oriented microfilament bundles, and that isolated pollen-tube organelles show ATP-dependent movement along the actin bundles of the giant cells of the characeous algae, this finding suggests that an actomyosin motility system is present in pollen tubes, and indicates that the movements of the different classes of inclusions are driven by interaction of the surface myosin with the actin fibrils at the zones of contact.

2014 ◽  
Vol 65 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 101-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renata Śnieżko ◽  
Krystyna Winiarczyk

After selfpollination of <em>Sinapis alba</em> L. pollen tubes growth is inhibited on the stigma. The pollen grains germinate 3-4 hours after pollination. The pollen give rise to one or more pollen tubes. They grow along the papillae. In the place of contact between the papilla and pollen tube the pellicula is digested. Then the direction of pollen tube growth changes completely. Pollen tubes grow back on the exine of their own pollen grain, or turn into the air. The pollen tubes growth was inhibited in 6-8 hours after selfpollination. After crosspollination usually there is no incompatibility reaction.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyun Kyung Lee ◽  
Daphne R. Goring

SummaryIn flowering plants, continuous cell-cell communication between the compatible male pollen grain/growing pollen tube and the female pistil is required for successful sexual reproduction. In Arabidopsis thaliana, the later stages of this dialogue are mediated by several peptide ligands and receptor kinases that guide pollen tubes to the ovules for the release of sperm cells. Despite a detailed understanding of these processes, a key gap remains on the nature of the regulators that function at the earlier stages. Here, we report on two groups of A. thaliana receptor kinases, the LRR-VIII-2 RK subclass and the SERKs, that function in the female reproductive tract to regulate the compatible pollen grains and early pollen tube growth, both essential steps for the downstream processes leading to fertilization. Multiple A. thaliana LRR-VIII-2 RK and SERK knockout mutant combinations were created, and several phenotypes were observed such as reduced wild-type pollen hydration and reduced pollen tube travel distances. As these mutant pistils displayed a wild-type morphology, the observed altered responses of the wild-type pollen are proposed to result from the loss of these receptor kinases leading to an impaired pollen-pistil dialogue at these early stages. Furthermore, using pollen from related Brassicaceae species, we also discovered that these receptor kinases are required in the female reproductive tract to establish a reproductive barrier to interspecies pollen. Thus, we propose that the LRR-VIII-2 RKs and the SERKs play a dual role in the preferential selection and promotion of intraspecies pollen over interspecies pollen.


2020 ◽  
Vol 195 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-105
Author(s):  
Simone P Teixeira ◽  
Marina F B Costa ◽  
João Paulo Basso-Alves ◽  
Finn Kjellberg ◽  
Rodrigo A S Pereira

Abstract The synstigma is a structure formed by clusters of two to several stigmas, whether in the same or between different flowers. Although rare in angiosperms, synstigmas are found in c. 500 out of the c. 750 Ficus spp. (Moraceae). This floral structure is associated with fig-fig wasp pollinating mutualism. The synstigma structure and pollen tube pathways were studied in six Ficus spp. from Ficus section Americanae to test the hypothesis that the synstigma allows pollen grains deposited on a stigma to emit pollen tubes that can grow laterally and fertilize surrounding flowers. Syconia containing recently pollinated stigmas were collected and dissected, and the stigmas were processed for analyses with light and scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The arrangement of the synstigmas across species can be spaced or congested, with the number of stigmas per synstigma ranging from two to 20. Contact between the stigmas in a synstigma occurs by the intertwining of the stigmatic branches and papillae; their union is firm or loose. The pollen tube grows through live cells of the transmitting tissue until reaching the ovule micropyle. Curved pollen tubes growing from one stigma to another were observed in five out of the six species studied. The curvilinear morphology of pollen tubes probably results from competition by pollen between the stigmas composing a synstigma via chemotropic signals. The synstigma appears to be a key adaptation that ensures seed production by flowers not exploited by the fig wasps in actively pollinated Ficus spp.


Author(s):  
María Flores-Tornero ◽  
Lele Wang ◽  
David Potěšil ◽  
Said Hafidh ◽  
Frank Vogler ◽  
...  

Abstract Key message Analyses of secretomes of in vitro grown pollen tubes from Amborella, maize and tobacco identified many components of processes associated with the cell wall, signaling and metabolism as well as novel small secreted peptides. Abstract Flowering plants (angiosperms) generate pollen grains that germinate on the stigma and produce tubes to transport their sperm cells cargo deep into the maternal reproductive tissues toward the ovules for a double fertilization process. During their journey, pollen tubes secrete many proteins (secreted proteome or secretome) required, for example, for communication with the maternal reproductive tissues, to build a solid own cell wall that withstands their high turgor pressure while softening simultaneously maternal cell wall tissue. The composition and species specificity or family specificity of the pollen tube secretome is poorly understood. Here, we provide a suitable method to obtain the pollen tube secretome from in vitro grown pollen tubes of the basal angiosperm Amborella trichopoda (Amborella) and the Poaceae model maize. The previously published secretome of tobacco pollen tubes was used as an example of eudicotyledonous plants in this comparative study. The secretome of the three species is each strongly different compared to the respective protein composition of pollen grains and tubes. In Amborella and maize, about 40% proteins are secreted by the conventional “classic” pathway and 30% by unconventional pathways. The latter pathway is expanded in tobacco. Proteins enriched in the secretome are especially involved in functions associated with the cell wall, cell surface, energy and lipid metabolism, proteolysis and redox processes. Expansins, pectin methylesterase inhibitors and RALFs are enriched in maize, while tobacco secretes many proteins involved, for example, in proteolysis and signaling. While the majority of proteins detected in the secretome occur also in pollen grains and pollen tubes, and correlate in the number of mapped peptides with relative gene expression levels, some novel secreted small proteins were identified. Moreover, the identification of secreted proteins containing pro-peptides indicates that these are processed in the apoplast. In conclusion, we provide a proteome resource from three distinct angiosperm clades that can be utilized among others to study the localization, abundance and processing of known secreted proteins and help to identify novel pollen tube secreted proteins for functional studies.


Development ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 124 (12) ◽  
pp. 2489-2498 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.M. Ray ◽  
S.S. Park ◽  
A. Ray

In flowering plants, pollen grains germinate on the pistil and send pollen tubes down the transmitting tract toward ovules. Previous genetic studies suggested that the ovule is responsible for long-range pollen tube guidance during the last phase of a pollen tube's journey to the female gametes. It was not possible, however, to unambiguously identify the signaling cells within an ovule: the haploid female gametophyte or the diploid sporophytic cells. In an effort to distinguish genetically between these two possibilities, we have used a reciprocal chromosomal translocation to generate flowers wherein approximately half the ovules do not contain a functional female gametophyte but all ovules contain genotypically normal sporophytic cells. In these flowers, pollen tubes are guided to the normal but not to the abnormal female gametophytes. These results strongly suggest that the female gametophyte is responsible for pollen tube guidance, but leave open the possibility that the gametophyte may accomplish this indirectly through its influence on some sporophytic cells.


Zygote ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 278-285
Author(s):  
Yi Hua Lin ◽  
Mei Zhen Lin ◽  
Yu Qing Chen ◽  
Hui Qiao Tian

SummaryThe isolation of male and female gametes is an effective method to study the fertilization mechanisms of higher plants. An osmotic shock method was used to rupture pollen grains of Allium tuberosum Roxb and release the pollen contents, including generative cells, which were mass collected. The pollinated styles were cut following 3 h of in vivo growth, and cultured in medium for 6–8 h, during which time pollen tubes grew out of the cut end of the style. After pollen tubes were transferred into a solution containing 6% mannitol, tubes burst and released pairs of sperm cells. Ovules of A. tuberosum were incubated in an enzyme solution for 30 min, and then dissected to remove the integuments. Following transfer to a dissecting solution free of enzymes, each nucellus was cut in the middle, and squeezed gently on the micropylar end, resulting in the liberation of the egg, zygote and proembryo from ovules at selected stages. These cells can be used to explore fertilization and embryonic development using molecular biological methods for each cell type and development stage.


1988 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. HESLOP-HARRISON ◽  
Y. HESLOP-HARRISON ◽  
M. CRESTI ◽  
A. TIEZZI ◽  
A. MOSCATELLI

The ellipsoidal generative cell of the pollen grain of Endymion nonscriptus usually elongates further following germination and entry into the tube, producing attenuated extensions the forward one of which may reach into the vicinity of the vegetative nucleus. This shape change is accompanied by the stretching of the microtubule cytoskeleton of the cell, identified in the present work by immunofluorescence using monoclonal antibodies to tubulin. Complementary observations of living generative cells of Iris pseudacorus showed that they undergo slow undulatory movements accompanied by variation in shape and length during passage through the tube. Such changes must presumably be accompanied by modifications of the microtubule cytoskeleton. Colchicine at 1 mM eliminated microtubules from tubes and most generative cells of E. nonscriptus, but did not radically affect pollen-tube shape or extension growth, nor arrest the movements of the vegetative nucleus and generative cell into and through the tube. Generative cells in colchicinetreated pollen of Galanthus nivalis rounded up and failed to undergo the usual changes in shape during passage through the tube. Secondary consequences were changes in precedence in movement through the tube, and a greater dispersal along its length. On the assumption that no other cytoskeletal elements remain to be discovered, it seems likely that microfilaments rather than microtubules provide the motive force for movement in the tube, although the latter are involved in shaping the generative cell and adapting it to its passage.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 3710 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shujuan Zhang ◽  
Chunbo Wang ◽  
Min Xie ◽  
Jinyu Liu ◽  
Zhe Kong ◽  
...  

The angiosperm pollen tube delivers two sperm cells into the embryo sac through a unique growth strategy, named tip growth, to accomplish fertilization. A great deal of experiments have demonstrated that actin bundles play a pivotal role in pollen tube tip growth. There are two distinct actin bundle populations in pollen tubes: the long, rather thick actin bundles in the shank and the short, highly dynamic bundles near the apex. With the development of imaging techniques over the last decade, great breakthroughs have been made in understanding the function of actin bundles in pollen tubes, especially short subapical actin bundles. Here, we tried to draw an overall picture of the architecture, functions and underlying regulation mechanism of actin bundles in plant pollen tubes.


1962 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 352-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. L. A. Mäkinen ◽  
D. Lewis

Proteins of pollen of Oenothera organensis from heterozygous S2S3, S2S6, S3S6 and S4S6 and homozygous S6S6 genotypes produce characteristic precipitation lines in agar-gel plates against antisera prepared from the pollen. The maximum number of precipitation lines was three, and with some genotypes only one line was formed. The lines were characteristic of the different S alleles, but there was a strong cross-reaction between S4 pollen and S6 antiserum. The S protein diffused out from intact pollen grains as readily as from macerated pollen indicating that the normal site of action of the S protein, when the pollen tubes are growing down the style, is near the surface of the pollen tube. The self-compatible mutant S6′S6 in which the S6′ allele has lost the ability to produce an active pollen S protein, has a protein which cross-reacts strongly with S6 antiserum.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document