Fertilization articles from across Nature Portfolio

Preferential fertilization of the egg or central cell during double fertilization has long been controversial. The authors demonstrate preferential sperm–egg fusion in Arabidopsis and show that EGG CELL 1, which is secreted by the egg cell, plays a decisive role in this process.

The DAF-like protein, OAF, negatively regulates CAD9 activity in Arabidopsis and is itself negatively regulated by miR847, resulting in the prevention of precocious lignification during ovule development.

A signalling mechanism ensuring intraspecies and interspecies reproductive barriers in flowering plants is uncovered.

Pollen tube growth is guided towards ovules. Here the authors show that a bHLH transcriptional factor CsALC functions in pollen tube emergence towards ovules to regulate female fertility in cucumber and promotes the expression of two rapid alkalinization factors CsRALF4/19 in the ovary.

The first complete cycad genome offers an invaluable solution to sex determination, one of the largest conservation challenges in these enigmatic plants.

Fusion of lipid bilayers to deliver genetic information is a process common to both viral infection and fertilization, and the two share common molecular mechanisms. Now, identification of fusion-facilitators shows that plants have their own unique slant on the fusion process.

The stigma has a tightly regulated functional lifespan and is therefore a key determinant for floral receptivity. New evidence reveals how two transcription factors play a pivotal role in controlling stigma lifespan by regulating developmental programmed cell death in this tissue to terminate pollen receptivity.