Abstract
During fertilization in flowering plants, chemo-attractants from the ovule have been thought to be key molecules in pollen tube guidance. We have identified defensin-like peptide LUREs as attractant peptides (Okuda, Tsutsui et al., Nature, 2009). Recently, we established a method enabling the direct visualization of a LURE peptide by conjugating it with the Alexa Fluor 488 fluorescent dye (Goto et al., Plant Cell Physiol., 2011).
These recent findings allow us to analyze the mechanism of pollen tube guidance directly at a molecule level. Elucidation of the receptor for LUREs is essential for understanding the mechanism of pollen tube-LUREs interaction. We, then, aimed to identify the receptor to reveal how the pollen tube accepts the signal of LUREs and determines its growth direction. First, to investigate which part of the pollen tube interacts with LUREs, pollen tubes treated with recombinant LUREs were immunostained with anti-LURE antibodies. Next, we analyzed how the pollen tube is affected by maternal tissues. Here, we show maternal effects on the pollen tube when the pollen tube receives LUREs by demonstrating physiological analyses.
