Study
Pollen and stigma structure and function: the role of diversity in pollination
Edlund, Anna F.; Swanson, Robert; Preuss, Daphne
The Plant Cell, 2004
A review of pollen grain structure and of the molecular exchange between a grain and the stigma it lands on: wall composition, the coat, hydration, recognition and rejection, and the growth of the pollen tube.
- Studied in
- Angiospermae, Arabidopsis thaliana
- Sample size
- review of pollen–stigma biology
A pollen grain is a small multicellular organism — the male gametophyte — enclosed in a wall of sporopollenin, one of the most chemically resistant biological materials known. Landing on a compatible stigma triggers controlled hydration and the growth of a tube that carries two sperm cells to the ovule; incompatible pollen is recognised and rejected before or during this process.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Pollen–stigma interaction is an active molecular dialogue rather than passive delivery, and its specificity is central to reproductive isolation.
How NatureHQ reads it
This is where the "pollen is plant sperm" analogy breaks. A grain is not a gamete: it is a whole organism of a few cells that manufactures gametes and then grows a tube to deliver them. Sporopollenin is also why pollen survives in lake sediment for tens of thousands of years, which is the entire basis of palynology.
- Molecular detail is dominated by a small number of model species.
- Self-incompatibility systems differ substantially between families.
- A review, so specific mechanisms are summarised rather than evidenced individually.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
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Published by: Wiley journalsPublished in a Wiley journal.
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