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Sperm cells are passive cargo of the pollen tube in plant fertilization

Jun.08,2017

Prof. Lijia Qu published a paper on Nature Plants.


Sperm cells of seed plants have lost their motility and are transported by the vegetative pollen tube cell for fertilization, but the extent to which they regulate their own transportation is a long-standing debate. Here we show that Arabidopsis lacking two bHLH transcription factors produces pollen without sperm cells. This abnormal pollen mostly behaves like the wild type and demonstrates that sperm cells are dispensable for normal pollen tube development.


Original link: https://www.nature.com/articles/nplants201779