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...

Fertilization in plants relies on fast growth of pollen tubes through the style tissue toward the ovules. This polarized growth depends on influx of ions and water to increase the tube's volume. K(+) inward rectifying channels were detected in many pollen species, with one identified in Arabidopsis. Here, an Arabidopsis AKT1-like channel (LilKT1) was identified from Lilium longiflorum pollen. C...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Insufficient pollination is a function of quantity and quality of pollen receipt, and the relative contribution of each to pollen limitation may vary with intrinsic plant traits and extrinsic ecological properties. Community-level studies are essential to evaluate variation across species in quality limitation under common ecological conditions. This study examined whether e...

During sexual reproduction of flowering plants, the pollen tube grows fast and over a long distance within the pistil to deliver two sperms for double fertilization. Growing plant cells need to communicate constantly with external stimuli as well as monitor changes in surface tension of the cell wall and plasma membrane to coordinate these signals and internal growth machinery; however, the und...

In sexual reproduction, proper communication and cooperation between male and female organs and tissues are essential for male and female gametes to unite. In flowering plants, female sporophytic tissues and gametophytes direct a male pollen tube toward an egg apparatus, which consists of an egg cell and two synergid cells. The cell-cell communication between the pollen tube and the egg apparat...

Pollen tube growth is dependent on a dynamic actin cytoskeleton, suggesting that actin-regulating proteins are involved. We have examined the regulation of the lily pollen-specific actin-depolymerizing factor (ADF) LlADF1. Its actin binding and depolymerizing activity is pH sensitive, inhibited by certain phosphoinositides, but not controlled by phosphorylation. Compared with its F-actin bindin...

Plant Rac-like GTPases have been classified phylogenetically into two major groups-class I and class II. Several pollen-expressed class I Rac-like GTPases have been shown to be important regulators of polar pollen tube growth. The functional participation by some of the class I and all of the class II Arabidopsis Rac-like GTPases in pollen tube growth remains to be explored. It is shown that at...

The expansion of both root hairs and pollen tubes occurs by a process known as tip growth. In this report, an Arabidopsis thaliana mutant (tip1) is described that displays defects in both root-hair and pollen-tube growth. The root hairs of the tip1 mutant plants are shorter than those of the wild-type plants and branched at their base. The tip1 pollen-tube growth defect was identified by the ab...

Double fertilization in angiosperms requires the delivery of immotile sperm through pollen tubes, which enter embryo sacs to initiate synergid degeneration and to discharge. This fascinating process, called pollen tube reception, involves extensive communications between pollen tubes and synergids, within which few intracellular regulators involved have been revealed. Here, we report that vacuo...

In Angiosperms, the male gametes are delivered to the female gametes through the maternal reproductive tissue by the pollen tube. Upon arrival, the pollen tube releases the two sperm cells, permitting double fertilization to take place. Although the critical role of the female gametophyte in pollen tube reception has been demonstrated, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, w...