Multilayered Signaling Pathways for Pollen Tube Growth and Guidance

Overview

Journal Plant Reprod

Publisher Springer

Specialty Biology

Date 2018 Feb 15

PMID 29441420

Citations 13

Authors

Hong-Ju Li

Jiang-Guo Meng

Wei-Cai Yang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Sexual reproductive success is essential for the survival of all higher organisms. As the most prosperous and diverse group of land plants on earth, flowering plants evolved highly sophisticated fertilization mechanisms. To adapt to the terrestrial environment, a tubular structure pollen tube has been evolved to deliver the immobile sperm cells to the egg and central cell enclosed within the ovule. The pollen tube is generated from the vegetative cell of the pollen (male gametophyte), where two sperm cells are hosted. Pollen tube elongation in the maternal tissue and navigation to the ovule require intimate cell-cell interactions between the tube and female tissues. Questions on how the single-celled pollen tube accomplishes such task and how the female tissues accommodate the tube have attracted many plant biologists. Here, we review recent progresses and concepts in understanding the molecular mechanisms governing pollen tube growth and its interactions with the female tissues. We will also discuss the future perspective in this field.

Citing Articles

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Osmosensor-mediated control of Ca spiking in pollen germination.

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