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JXB Advance Access published online on September 15, 2006
Journal of Experimental Botany, 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
Received January 14, 2006
Accepted July 17, 2006

Intracellular Compartmentation: Biogenesis and Function Special Issue

Structural and functional compartmentalization in pollen tubes

Alice Y. Cheung 1 * and Hen-Ming Wu 2

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

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


  Abstract

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.

Keywords: Molecular and ion compartments; organelle; pollen tubes; tip-growth; vesicle.
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This article has been cited by other articles:


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A. Y. Cheung, Q.-h. Duan, S. S. Costa, B. H.J. de Graaf, V. S. Di Stilio, J. Feijo, and H.-M. Wu
The Dynamic Pollen Tube Cytoskeleton: Live Cell Studies Using Actin-Binding and Microtubule-Binding Reporter Proteins
Mol Plant, July 1, 2008; 1(4): 686 - 702.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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