Development of an Assay of Sperm-Egg Binding in Flowering Plants

开花植物精卵结合测定方法的发展

• 批准号: 9123733
• 负责人: Darlene Southworth
• 金额: $ 4.6万
• 依托单位: Southern Oregon University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1992
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1992-01-01 至 1993-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9123733&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Development; Assay; Sperm; Egg; Binding

The basic process of fertilization, fusion of egge sperm, is well known in animals. Flowering plants also produce eggs and sperm, but little is known about the mechanism of fertilization. Plant sperm are embedded in pollen grains and move down the growing pollen tube to the egg. Near the egg, the pollen tube bursts and releases two sperms. One sperm fuse with the egg to form the embryo of the seed. The second sperm fuses with the central cell adjacent to the egg to form a nutritive tissue for the developing embryo. A major unanswered question in plant reproduction is how sperm recognize the egg and central cell, and then adhere and fuse. A bioassay for sperm-egg adhesion will be developed using frozen sections of embryo sacs, including eggs and central cells, with isolated sperm. The bioassay will be useful to test mechanisms of sperm-egg recognition and to determine which antibodies to sperm cell surfaces can inhibit sperm-egg adhesion. The results will expand our knowledge of plant fertilization, create a model system for investigating plant reproduction, and lead to identification of key molecules in the fertilization process for future genetic transformations.

受精的基本过程，即卵子精子的融合，在动物身上是众所周知的。开花植物也会产生卵子和精子，但人们对受精的机制知之甚少。植物精子嵌入到花粉粒中，沿着不断生长的花粉管向下移动到卵子。在卵子附近，花粉管破裂并释放出两个精子。一个精子与卵子融合形成种子的胚胎。第二个精子与卵子附近的中央细胞融合，形成一个营养组织，为发育中的胚胎提供营养。植物繁殖中的一个主要悬而未决的问题是精子如何识别卵子和中央细胞，然后黏附和融合。将利用冷冻的胚囊切片，包括卵子和中央细胞，与分离的精子一起开发一种精子-卵子粘附性的生物检测方法。这种生物测定将有助于测试精子-卵子识别的机制，并确定哪些针对精子细胞表面的抗体可以抑制精子-卵子的粘连。这些结果将扩大我们对植物受精的知识，创建一个研究植物繁殖的模型系统，并为未来的遗传转化识别受精过程中的关键分子。