Gamete recognition in higher plants: an abstruse but charming mystery.
Although much effort has been made to uncover the mechanism underlying double fertilization, little knowledge has been acquired for understanding the molecular base of gamete recognition, mainly because of technical limitations. Still, progress has been made in terms of the mechanism, including the identification of candidate molecules that are involved in gamete recognition in angiosperms. New cues for gamete recognition have been found by the successful separation of the gametes and construction of gamete-specific cDNA libraries in several species, and the application of molecular approaches for studying this process by mutations. Thus, the topic is considered an abstruse but charming mystery.
Peng
Xiong-Bo
XB
Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Plant Developmental Biology, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
Sun
Meng-Xiang
MX
D005306:Fertilization / Q000235:genetics; D017343:Genes, Plant; D005854:Germ Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics*