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

受精的基本过程是卵精融合， 动物中已知的。 开花植物也产生卵子和精子， 但对受精的机制知之甚少。 植物 精子嵌入花粉粒中， 花粉管到卵。 在卵附近，花粉管破裂， 释放两个精子 一个精子与卵子融合形成 种子的胚。 第二个精子与中央细胞融合 与卵相邻，形成发育中的营养组织， 胚胎 植物繁殖中一个主要的未解之谜是 精子识别卵子和中央细胞，然后粘附， 保险丝 精卵粘附的生物测定将采用 胚胎囊的冷冻切片，包括卵和中央细胞， 分离的精子 生物测定将有助于测试 精卵识别的机制，并确定 针对精子细胞表面的抗体可以抑制精卵粘附。 这些结果将扩大我们对植物施肥的认识， 建立一个研究植物繁殖的模型系统， 从而鉴定出受精过程中的关键分子 未来的基因改造。

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.