Abstract
In higher plants, the synergid cells play essential roles in sexual reproduction including pollen tube guidance and sperm cell release. We showed that both LURE1 and LURE2, which are identified by EST analysis of Torenia synergid cells, have the ability to attract pollen tubes in vitro. When Morpholino antisense oligo (MO) against each LURE was injected into the Torenia embryo sacs by Laser Micro Injection, the attraction was significantly impaired (Okuda, Tsutsui et al., Nature, 2009). However, it is not known that LUREs act coordinately or independently, and the functions of other genes expressed in the synergid cells are still unclear.
To investigate whether LUREs act solely or not, we injected MOs against both LUREs and observed pollen tube attraction. To confirm the gene-specific down-regulation by MO, we developed the method for RNA extraction from a single ovule, and LURE transcripts in an MO-injected ovule were analyzed by qRT-PCR. Additionally, we identified a family of genes that are highly expressed in synergid cells and at least one of them was synergid-specific.
Based on these results, we will discuss the function of synergid cells and the genes.
