Developmental evolution of flowering plant pollen tube cell walls: callose synthase (CalS) gene expression patterns.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A number of innovations underlie the origin of rapid reproductive cycles in angiosperms. A critical early step involved the modification of an ancestrally short and slow-growing pollen tube for faster and longer distance transport of sperm to egg. Associated with this shift are the predominantly callose (1,3-β-glucan) walls and septae (callose plugs) of angiosperm pollen tubes. Callose synthesis is mediated by callose synthase (CalS). Of 12 CalS gene family members in Arabidopsis, only one (CalS5) has been directly linked to pollen tube callose. CalS5 orthologues are present in several monocot and eudicot genomes, but little is known about the evolutionary origin of CalS5 or what its ancestral function may have been.

Results

We investigated expression of CalS in p

SUBMITTER: Abercrombie JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3146827 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature