Novel Proteins of the Pollen Extracellular Matrix

植物细胞壁是植物发育过程中既决定形态结构又介导细胞间相互作用的动态结构。细胞壁蛋白可能积极参与这两种作用。花粉相对简单的结构和已知的用于细胞-细胞相互作用的花粉“识别伙伴”（柱头和花柱管）使花粉成为研究植物细胞壁蛋白和细胞-细胞识别的理想系统。贝丁格博士发现了花粉特异性的两种新型细胞外基质蛋白。一类蛋白质与花粉外壁或外壁紧密相关，可能与建立种特有的外壁纹饰模式或花粉-雌蕊识别有关。第二类蛋白可能是花粉管壁的结构成分，也可能作为性凝集素介导花粉管与雌性组织的相互作用。贝丁格博士建议分离编码这些蛋白质的全长基因，将这些蛋白质定位在花粉或花粉管中，并研究这些蛋白质在雌雄识别中的作用。从提出的研究中获得的数据将使我们能够为这些蛋白质在植物繁殖中的功能提出可测试的模型。＊＊＊

9305165 Bedinger Plant cell walls are dynamic structures that both determine morphological structure and mediate cell-cell interactions in plant development. Cell wall proteins are likely to participate actively in both roles. The relatively simple structure of pollen and the known pollen "recognition partners" for cell-cell interactions (stigma and stylar canal) make pollen an ideal system for the study of plant cell wall proteins and cell-cell recognition. Dr. Bedinger has identified two novel classes of extracellular matrix proteins specific to pollen. One class of proteins is tightly associated with the outer pollen wall, or exine, and may be involved with establishing the species specific pattern of exine ornamentation, or in pollen-pistil recognition. The second class of protein(s) may be structural components of the pollen tube wall, or may act as sexual agglutinins to mediate the interaction of the pollen tube with female tissues. Dr. Bedinger proposes to isolate full length genes encoding these proteins, localize the proteins within the pollen or pollen tube, and investigate the role of the proteins in male-female recognition. The data obtained from the proposed studies will enable us to propose testable models for the functions of these proteins in plant reproduction. ***