Molecular Mechanisms of Pollen Tube Growth and Differentiation.

Molecular Mechanisms of Pollen Tube Growth and Differentiation.

INTRODUCTION ' The extremely reduced, three-celled, haploid male plant (male gametophyte) of flowering plants has a number of specialized functions to perform. The primary functions are the production of two sperm cells and their transport within the pollen tube through the tissues of the style and ovary into the embryo sac in the ovule, where they participate in double fertilization. The early...

Ions and Pollen Tube Growth

Ions play a crucial role in the control of pollen tube growth. In this review we focus on four that seem especially important: calcium (Ca2+), protons (H+), potassium (K+), and chloride (Cl–). Ca2+ in the extracellular medium is essential for growth; it forms a steep intracellular tip-focused gradient, and exhibits a prominent extracellular tip-directed Ca2+ influx. pH is also essential for gro...

Regulation of pollen tube growth

Gibberellin regulates pollen viability and pollen tube growth in rice.

Gibberellins (GAs) play many biological roles in higher plants. We collected and performed genetic analysis on rice (Oryza sativa) GA-related mutants, including GA-deficient and GA-insensitive mutants. Genetic analysis of the mutants revealed that rice GA-deficient mutations are not transmitted as Mendelian traits to the next generation following self-pollination of F1 heterozygous plants, alth...

Regulation of Pollen Tube Growth by Transglutaminase.

In pollen tubes, cytoskeleton proteins are involved in many aspects of pollen germination and growth, from the transport of sperm cells to the asymmetrical distribution of organelles to the deposition of cell wall material. These activities are based on the dynamics of the cytoskeleton. Changes to both actin filaments and microtubules are triggered by specific proteins, resulting in different o...