Abstract
The developmental plasticity of plants is beautifully illustrated by the competence of the immature male gametophyte to change its developmental fate from pollen to embryo development when exposed to stress treatments in culture. This process, referred to as microspore embryogenesis, is widely exploited in plant breeding, but also provides a unique system to understand totipotency and early cell fate decisions. We summarize the major concepts that have arisen from decades of cell and molecular studies on microspore embryogenesis and put these in the context of recent experiments, as well as results obtained from the study of pollen and zygotic embryo development.
Highlights
Embryo fate determination in vitroThe male gametophyte or pollen grain is a two- to threecelled structure. Male gametophyte development is initiated after meiotic division of the pollen mother cell
The developmental plasticity of plants is beautifully illustrated by the competence of the immature male gametophyte to change its developmental fate from pollen to embryo development when exposed to stress treatments in culture
We summarize the major concepts that have arisen from decades of cell and molecular studies on microspore embryogenesis and put these in the context of recent experiments, as well as results obtained from the study of pollen and zygotic embryo development
Summary
The male gametophyte or pollen grain is a two- to threecelled structure. Male gametophyte development is initiated after meiotic division of the pollen mother cell. Jouve 2005) and pepper (Gonzalez-Melendi et al 1996; Kim et al 2004) These different pathways often coexist in the same cultures at varying frequencies depending on the species, the stage of male gametophyte development used as explant, and the stress treatment (Custers et al 1994; Kasha et al 2001). In B. napus, it is possible to obtain microspore embryos that show a similar, highly organized pattern of cell division as in zygotic embryos In this pathway, a suspensor-like filament is formed by repeated transversal divisions of the microspore, followed by the formation of the embryo proper at the distal end of the suspensor (Fig. 1h). A high percentage of the microspores divide sporophytically, but form callus rather than embryos (Castillo et al 2000; Fadel and Wenzel 1990; Massonneau et al 2005; Olsen 1987)
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