A key role of boron in plants is to cross-link the cell wall pectic polysaccharide rhamnogalacturonan-II (RG-II) through borate diester linkages. Phenylboronic acid (PBA) can form the same reversible ester bonds but cannot cross-link two molecules, so can be used as an antagonist to study the function of boron. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of PBA on apple (Malus domestica) pollen tub...

Spatially and temporally regulated membrane trafficking events incorporate membrane and cell wall materials into the pollen tube apex and are believed to underlie the rapid pollen tube growth. In plants, the molecular mechanisms and physiological functions of intra-Golgi transport and Golgi integrity maintenance remain largely unclear. The conserved oligomeric Golgi (COG) complex has been impli...

Hydraulic turbines are usually operating at high efficiencies around 90%. It is possible to increase the efficiency by preventing flow characteristics such as failure, cavitation and vortex rope in draft tube. In some cases, partial loads or overloads, pressure pulsations would occur These undesired events damage components of turbine that also causes decrease. To eliminate these artifacts, it ...

The experimental studies of thermoacoustic cooler consisting of acoustic loop-tube were carried out. The loop-tube was filled with the mixture of air and helium gas or air at atmospheric pressure. The dimensions of the loop-tube were 3.3 m of length, 44 mm of inner diameter and 4 mm of thickness. A pair of stacks (stack 1 and stack 2) which were sandwiched between two heat exchangers was placed...

In this paper procedures for estimating the sound absorption coefficient when the specimen has inherently low absorption are discussed. Examples of this include the measurement of the absorption coefficient of pavements, closed cell foams and other barrier materials whose absorption coefficient is nevertheless required, and the measurement of sound absorption of muffler components such as perfo...

Boron is an important micronutrient for plants. However, boron is also toxic to cells at high concentrations, although the mechanism of this toxicity is not known. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of boron toxicity on Malus domestica pollen tube growth and its possible regulatory pathway. Our results showed that a high concentration of boron inhibited pollen germination and tube growth a...

The design and prototype tests of a segmented and shielded instrumentation structure, based on tube modules connected by canoe ball type kinematic couplings, are presented with application to a high-precision microscope for biological science experiments. The segmented tube design is shown to be significantly less sensitive to deformation from uneven thermal disturbances than a single tube stru...

THE LAUNCH OF SEED DEVELOPMENT IN FLOWERING PLANTS (ANGIOSPERMS) IS INITIATED BY THE PROCESS OF DOUBLE FERTILIZATION: two male gametes (sperm cells) fuse with two female gametes (egg and central cell) to form the precursor cells of the two major seed components, the embryo and endosperm, respectively. The immobile sperm cells are delivered by the pollen tube toward the ovule harboring the femal...

Tubulin genes are intimately associated with cell division and cell elongation, which are central to plant secondary cell wall development. However, their roles in pollen tube polar growth remain elusive. Here, a TUA1 gene from Picea wilsonii, which is specifically expressed in pollen, was isolated. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed that the amount of PwTUA1 transcript varied at each sta...

Cellulose is an important component of cell wall, yet its location and function in pollen tubes remain speculative. In this paper, we studied the role of cellulose synthesis in pollen tube elongation in Pinus bungeana Zucc. by using the specific inhibitor, 2, 6-dichlorobenzonitrile (DCB). In the presence of DCB, the growth rate and morphology of pollen tubes were distinctly changed. The organiz...