Skip Navigation

Journal of Experimental Botany 2008 59(9):2529-2543; doi:10.1093/jxb/ern119
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Wu, J.-Z.
Right arrow Articles by Zhao, J.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Wu, J.-Z.
Right arrow Articles by Zhao, J.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Wu, J.-Z.
Right arrow Articles by Zhao, J.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© 2008 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This paper is available online free of all access charges (see http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/open_access.html for further details)

RESEARCH PAPER

IAA stimulates pollen tube growth and mediates the modification of its wall composition and structure in Torenia fournieri

Juan-Zi Wu1, Yi Lin2, Xue-Lian Zhang1, Dai-Wen Pang2 and Jie Zhao1,*

1Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Plant Developmental Biology, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China
2College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, and State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jzhao{at}whu.edu.cn

The effects of several hormones on pollen tube growth were compared in Torenia fournieri and it was found that IAA was the most effective, stimulating pollen tube growth and causing the shank part of pollen tubes to be slender and straighter. The role of IAA was investigated by studying the changes in ultrastructure and PM H+-ATPase distribution in the pollen tubes and the modification of the tube wall. Using the fluorescent marker FM4-64, together with transmission electron microscopy, it was shown that secretory vesicles and mitochondria increased in IAA-treated tubes. Immunolocalization and fluorescence labelling, together with Fourier-transform infrared analysis, detected that IAA enhanced the level of PM H+-ATPase and the synthesis of pectins, and reduced the cellulose density in pollen tubes. Importantly, to observe the orientation of cellulose microfibrils in pollen tubes in situ, atomic force microscopy was used to examine the ‘intact’ tube wall. Atomic force microscopy images showed that cellulose microfibrils were parallel to each other in the subapical region of IAA-treated tubes, but disorganized in control tubes. All results provided new insights into the functions of cellulose microfibrils in pollen tube growth and direction, and revealed that the IAA-induced changes of pollen tubes were attributed to the increase in secretory vesicles, mitochondria, and PM H+-ATPase, and the modification of pectin and cellulose microfibrils in the tube wall.

Key words: AFM, cellulose microfibrils, FTIR, IAA, PM H+-ATPase, pollen tube, secretory vesicles, Torenia fournieri

Received 24 January 2008; Revised 27 March 2008 Accepted 31 March 2008


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.