Publication Date:
2001-08-25
Description:
In flowering plants, guidance of the pollen tube to the embryo sac (the haploid female gametophyte) is critical for successful fertilization. The target embryo sac may attract the pollen tube as the final step of guidance in the pistil. We show by laser cell ablation that two synergid cells adjacent to the egg cell attract the pollen tube. A single synergid cell was sufficient to generate an attraction signal, and two cells enhanced it. After fertilization, the embryo sac no longer attracts the pollen tube, despite the persistence of one synergid cell. This cessation of attraction might be involved in blocking polyspermy.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Higashiyama, T -- Yabe, S -- Sasaki, N -- Nishimura, Y -- Miyagishima S -- Kuroiwa, H -- Kuroiwa, T -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2001 Aug 24;293(5534):1480-3.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan. higashi@biol.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11520985" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Angiosperms/cytology/*physiology
;
Culture Techniques
;
Germ Cells/cytology/physiology
;
Lasers
;
Plant Structures/*cytology/*physiology
;
Pollen/*physiology
;
Reproduction
;
Seeds/physiology
;
Ultraviolet Rays
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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