Lipids in Pollen - They Are Different

During evolution, the male gametophyte of Angiosperms has been severely reduced to the pollen grain, consisting of a vegetative cell containing two sperm cells. This vegetative cell has to deliver the sperm cells from the stigma through the style to the ovule. It does so by producing a pollen tube and elongating it to many centimeters in length in some species, requiring vast amounts of fatty acid and membrane lipid synthesis. In order to optimize this polar tip growth, a unique lipid composition in the pollen has evolved. Pollen tubes produce extraplastidial galactolipids and store triacylglycerols in lipid droplets, probably needed as precursors of glycerolipids or for acyl editing. They also possess special sterol and sphingolipid moieties that might together form microdomains in the membranes. The individual lipid classes, the proteins involved in their synthesis as well as the corresponding Arabidopsis knockout mutant phenotypes are discussed in this review. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Plant Lipid Biology edited by Kent D. Chapman and Ivo Feussner.