Abstract
Chemo-attractants from the ovule have been thought to be key molecules in pollen tube guidance of flowering plants for more than 140 years. However, there had been no convincing evidence of any particular molecule being the true attractant that actually controls the navigation of pollen tubes towards ovules. Recently, we have identified that secreted, cysteine-rich polypeptides (CRPs) in a subgroup of defensin-like proteins (DEFLs) are attractants derived from the synergid cells (Okuda, Tsutsui et al., Nature, 2009).
To elucidate how the pollen tube accepts the signal of LUREs and determines its growth direction, we aimed to identify the receptor for LUREs. First, to identify which port of the pollen tube interacts with LUREs, pollen tubes that were treated with recombinant LURE proteins were immunostained with anti-LURE antibodies. Next, we tried to detect the pollen tube protein directly interacted with LUREs. We will demonstrate the biochemical analysis of the interaction between LUREs and pollen tubes.
