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Plant Sex: Pollen Tubes Caught in the Act | |||||||||||||||
July 25, 2003 Art Gallery |
Courtship in flowering plants begins when a pollen grain lands on the stigma of a flower. Only the pollen from the same species sticks, while foreign pollen grains fall off. Sitting on the stigma, the pollen grain grows a tube, which carries the sperm all the way to where the eggs are. Working with the mustard plant Arabidopsis thaliana, researchers have now identified a key molecular signal that lures the pollen tube toward the egg cells. The molecule—called gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA—also plays a role in the mammalian nervous system. The finding could provide clues about similar biological processes, such as how nerve cells find each other, and could even shed light on how to repair spinal cord injuries. The images below helped scientists at the University in Chicago, Illinois, identify how plants mate with their own species.
Birgit Reinert
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