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Lipids are required for directional pollen-tube growth

Nature volume 392, pages 818–821 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

Successful pollination and fertilization are absolute requirements for sexual reproduction in higher plants. Pollen hydration, germination and penetration of the stigma by pollen tubes are influenced by the exudate on wet stigmas1 and by the pollen coat in species with dry stigmas2,3,4,5. The exudate allows pollen tubes to grow directly into the stigma, whereas the pollen coat establishes the contact with the stigma. Pollen tubes then grow into the papillae, which are covered by a cuticle. The components of the exudate or pollen coat that are responsible for pollen tube penetration are not known. To discover the role of the exudate, we tested selected compounds for their ability to act as functional substitutes for exudate in the initial stages of pollen-tube growth on transgenic stigmaless tobacco plants1 that did not produce exudate. Here we show that lipids are the essential factor needed for pollen tubes to penetrate the stigma, and that, in the presence of these lipids, pollen tubes will also penetrate leaves. We propose that lipids direct pollen-tube growth by controlling the flow of water to pollen in species with dry and wet stigmas.

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Figure 1: Fluorescence micrographs of longitudinal sections of stigmaless pistils 24 h after pollination.
Figure 2: Growth of Brassica pollen on stigmaless pistils, and lack of growth of Arabidopsis pop1mutant pollen after self-pollination of Arabidopsis.
Figure 3: Growth of pollen on leaves and in oil bordering gelled germination medium.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Pereira for the gift of the cer and popmutants, J. Derksen for reading the manuscript and M.B. van Veen for artwork.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Experimental Botany, Graduate School Experimental Plant Sciences, University of Nijmegen, Toernooiveld 1, 6525 ED, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Mieke Wolters-Arts & Celestina Mariani

  2. Plant Cell Biology Research Centre, School of Botany, University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3052, Victoria, Australia

    W. Mary Lush

Authors
  1. Mieke Wolters-Arts
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  3. Celestina Mariani
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Correspondence to Mieke Wolters-Arts.

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Wolters-Arts, M., Lush, W. & Mariani, C. Lipids are required for directional pollen-tube growth. Nature 392, 818–821 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/33929

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