构建微流控力学芯片系统筛选花粉管压力感受和应答新基因

机械压力对植物有性生殖起重要调控作用。花粉管在穿过雌蕊组织传输精子的过程中，需要贯穿柱头和花柱等一系列不同组织构成的物理屏障。花粉管如何在复杂的压力环境中维持细胞完整性及极性生长，是一个亟待解决的重要生物学问题。由于缺乏对花粉管精准施加压力的工具，极大的阻碍了对花粉管压力信号响应机理的深入研究。本项目拟利用模式植物拟南芥的花粉管作为研究对象，构建微流控力学培养芯片，将细胞培养与压力刺激有机结合，建立花粉管压力敏感基因筛选体系和技术方法，使之可以结合遗传学、化学遗传学和转录组学来筛选和鉴定花粉管压力感受和应答新基因。本研究将为研究植物花粉管细胞压力感受和传导机制提供创新性技术，具有重要的理论和实际应用价值。

Mechanical stimulus plays a critical regulatory role in plant sexual reproduction. Pollen tubes elongate within the pistil through polar growth to deliver sperms during pollination. Pollen tubes have to sense and respond to the pressure stimulation from the pistil tissues and maintain cell integrity and polar growth before fertilization. However, the mechanism of mechanical stimulation is still largely unknown, due to lack of single-cell biomechanical culture system. In this project, pollen tube of Arabidopsis thaliana was used as a model to study mechanosensing at the single-cell level. We aim at creating a novel microfluidic technology to culture pollen tubes in compressed mode and building a set of technical specifications for screening of pressure-sensitive mutants. In addition, the pressurized culture system will be used in combination with genetics, chemical genetics, and transcriptome analysis for the identification of novel mechanosensitive genes. This study would provide novel technical solution for the study of mechanosensing mechanism of pollen tubes and enhance our understanding of plant reproduction.