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JXB Advance Access originally published online on September 15, 2006
Journal of Experimental Botany 2007 58(1):75-82; doi:10.1093/jxb/erl122
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© The Author [2006]. Published by Oxford University Press [on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology]. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

RESEARCH PAPER

Structural and functional compartmentalization in pollen tubes

Alice Y. Cheung1,2,3,* and Hen-Ming Wu1,2

1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Massachusetts, Lederle Graduate Research Tower, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
2Molecular Cell Biology Program, University of Massachusetts, Lederle Graduate Research Tower, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
3Plant Biology Program, University of Massachusetts, Lederle Graduate Research Tower, Amherst, MA 01003, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: acheung{at}biochem.umass.edu

Eukaryotic cellular functions are achieved by concerted activities in the cytosol and functions compartmentalized in the nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles. Moreover, the cytosol and nucleoplasm are populated with mega molecular ensembles that are specialized for different metabolic and biochemical processes. Pollen tubes are unique plant cells with a dramatic growth polarity. Tube growth is restricted to the tip and is supported by a polarized cytoplasmic organization. The apical region of elongating pollen tubes is a domain occupied exclusively by transport vesicles to support the secretion and endocytic activity needed for the rapid cell expansion at the apex. Larger organelles are predominantly segregated to the cytoplasm distal to the subapical region. Underlying the organelle compartmentalization is an elaborate actin cytoskeleton with distinct structural and dynamics properties at the tip, in the subapical region, and in the cytoplasm subtending it. Cytoplasmic domains with differential ionic conditions and spatially restricted localization of molecules in pollen tubes may also be important for regulating the polar cell growth process. The polarized cellular organization in pollen tubes drives an extremely efficient cell growth process that is responsive to extracellular signals, including directional cues. It may be an amplified framework of the cytoplasmic architecture that supports growth in other plant cell types that involves considerably more subtle and transient differential cell expansion.

Key words: Molecular and ion compartments, organelle, pollen tubes, tip-growth, vesicle


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