Live-cell imaging of early events following pollen perception in self-incompatible Arabidopsis thaliana

Knockin' on pollen's door: live cell imaging of early polarization events in germinating Arabidopsis pollen

Pollen tubes are an excellent system for studying the cellular dynamics and complex signaling pathways that coordinate polarized tip growth. Although several signaling mechanisms acting in the tip-growing pollen tube have been described, our knowledge on the subcellular and molecular events during pollen germination and growth site selection at the pollen plasma membrane is rather scarce. To si...

Live cell imaging of early autophagy events: omegasomes and beyond.

Autophagy is a cellular response triggered by the lack of nutrients, especially the absence of amino acids. Autophagy is defined by the formation of double membrane structures, called autophagosomes, that sequester cytoplasm, long-lived proteins and protein aggregates, defective organelles, and even viruses or bacteria. Autophagosomes eventually fuse with lysosomes leading to bulk degradation o...

Formation of unreduced pollen in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Sexual polyploidization, as a result of 2n gamete formation, is thought to be the main process involved in the origin of polyploid plants (Bretagnolle & Thompson, 1995). These gametes, possessing the somatic rather than the gametophytic chromosome number, can be formed either during microsporogenesis (2n pollen, big pollen, diplandroidy) or megasporogenesis (2n eggs, diplogynoecy). In general, ...

Live-Cell Imaging Reveals the Dynamics of Two Sperm Cells during Double Fertilization in Arabidopsis thaliana

Flowering plants have evolved a unique reproductive process called double fertilization, whereby two dimorphic female gametes are fertilized by two immotile sperm cells conveyed by the pollen tube. The two sperm cells are arranged in tandem with a leading pollen tube nucleus to form the male germ unit and are placed under the same genetic controls. Genes controlling double fertilization have be...

Arabinogalactan Proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana Pollen Development