Kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) male-sterile anthers abort at the microspore-stage, but the role sporophytic tissues in controlling male-sterility is unknown. Falasca et al. show that the tapetum and middle-layer...
Tag - pollen
botanyone
Reproductive differentiation into sexual and apomictic cytotypes
Mechanisms enabling the maintenance of sexual and apomictic modes of seed formation in sympatry are poorly understood. Dobeš et al. study populations of Potentilla puberula representing various combinations of five...
How does the vital interaction between pollen and pistil work?
How, in molecular terms, does the vital interaction between pollen pollen and pistil work?
AJ Cann
Microsporogenesis of monosulcate pollen grains in monocots
Microsporogenesis in 30 species belonging to eight monocot families, and five different pathways associated with the production of monosulcate pollen grains
Live! It’s The Pollination Show!
A new paper in Annals of Botany shows live images of pollen behaviour during pollination.
Alun Salt
A complicated way of having sex – and not without risks
Boy meets girl. Boy fertilizes girl. Patter of tiny feet. That’s the story of animal passion. But for flowering plants, it’s different. Pollen meets stigma. Pollen germinates, forms a long pollen tube that...
Bryophyte ‘sperminator’…
Co-opting animals to help with pollination is a major event in flower (angiosperm) biology – and is very much a do-or-die act. But have you ever considered that a similar role might be performed by animals in the case...
Nigel Chaffey
Functional classification of olive pollen esterases
Pollen grains contain numerous hydrolytic enzymes, many of which are released upon contact with the stigma. Rejón et al. carry out for the first time a systematic functional classification of esterases in pollen grains...
Improved method for estimating pollen DNA content
Kron and Husband describe a simple method for extracting pollen nuclei for measuring DNA content with flow cytometry, involving the bursting of pollen through a nylon mesh. The method compares favourably to other common...
Pollen water status, development and functioning (Invited Review)
The male gametophyte developmental program can be divided into five phases, which differ in relation to the environment and pollen hydration state: the microsporogenesis phase; the dehydration phase; the presentation...
August Image: Apple Stigma
This month the inset cover image shows a detail of the stigma of a flower of apple, Malus × domestica. The acquisition of stigmatic receptivity is concomitant with secretion of arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs, strained...
Guest Author
Pollen–pistil interactions in the Asteraceae (Review)
Pollen–pistil interactions are an essential prelude to fertilization in angiosperms, and self-incompatibility (SI) is the best understood of these at a molecular level. Allen et al. review studies in the Asteraceae, and...
SI-mediated actin alterations in pollen (Review)
Self-incompatibility (SI) is generally controlled by the S-locus, and comprises allelic pollen and pistil S-determinants. Poulter et al. review and discuss our current understanding of the cytoskeletal alterations...
