To investigate whether the high expression levels of actin-depolymerizing factor genes are related to pollen development, three GhADF genes (cDNAs) were isolated and characterized in cotton. Among them, GhADF6 and GhADF8 were preferentially expressed in petals, whereas GhADF7 displayed the highest level of expression in anthers, revealing its anther specificity. The GhADF7 transcripts in anther...

While stigma anatomy is well documented for a good number of species, little information is available on the acquisition and cessation of stigmatic receptivity. The aim of this work is to characterize the development of stigma receptivity, from anthesis to stigma degeneration, in the pentacarpellar pear (Pyrus communis) flower. Stigma development and stigmatic receptivity were monitored over tw...

Tapetosomes are abundant organelles in tapetum cells during the active stage of pollen maturation in Brassicaceae species. They possess endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-derived vesicles and oleosin-coated lipid droplets, but their overall composition and function have not been established. In situ localization analyses of developing Brassica napus anthers revealed flavonoids present exclusively in ta...

Phosphatidylinositol-4-monophosphate 5-kinases produce phosphatidylinositol (4,5)-bisphosphate [PtdIns(4,5)P(2)] and have been implicated in vesicle trafficking and cytoskeletal rearrangements. Here, we adopted a reverse genetics approach to investigate the function of the Arabidopsis thaliana pollen-expressed gene encoding phosphatidylinositol-4-monophosphate 5-kinase 4 (PIP5K4). Pollen germin...

pollen grains as well as whole plants of four olive (olea europaea l.) cultivars were screened for nacl salinity stress. different vegetative and physiological indexes of the cultivars were analyzed. leaf and root na/k ratio as well as stomatal resistance of plants exposed to salinity proved to be appropriate indexes of whole plant response to salt stress. whereas, in vitro pollen germination p...

Divergence at reproductive traits can generate barriers among populations, and may result from several mechanisms, including drift, local selection and co-adaptation between the sexes. Intersexual co-adaptation can arise through sexually antagonistic co-evolution, a timely hypothesis addressed in animals but, to our knowledge, not yet in flowering plants. We investigated whether male and female...

Reproduction of flowering plants requires the growth of pollen tubes to deliver immotile sperm for fertilization. Pollen tube growth resembles that of polarized metazoan cells, in that some molecular mechanisms underlying cell polarization and growth are evolutionarily conserved, including the functions of Rho GTPases and the dynamics of the actin cytoskeleton. However, a role for AGC kinases, ...

Genes essential for gametophyte development and fertilization have been identified and studied in detail; however, genes that fine-tune these processes are largely unknown. Here, we characterized an unknown Arabidopsis gene, GTP-BINDING PROTEIN RELATED1 (GPR1). GPR1 is specifically expressed in ovule, pollen, and pollen tube. Enhanced green fluorescent protein-tagged GPR1 localizes to both nucl...

We isolated a pollen-preferential gene, RICE IMMATURE POLLEN 1 (RIP1), from a T-DNA insertional population of japonica rice that was trapped by a promoterless beta-glucuronidase (GUS) gene. Semi-quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) analyses confirmed that the RIP1 transcript was abundant at the late stages of pollen development. Transgenic plants carrying a T-DNA insertion in the RIP...

Pollen tubes are a good model for the study of cell growth and morphogenesis because of their extreme elongation without cell division. Yet, knowledge about the genetic basis of pollen germination and tube growth is still lagging behind advances in pollen physiology and biochemistry. In an effort to reduce this gap, we have developed a new method to obtain highly purified, hydrated pollen grain...