Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Jan 21:8:615447.
doi: 10.3389/fcell.2020.615447. eCollection 2020.

Secretory Vesicles Targeted to Plasma Membrane During Pollen Germination and Tube Growth

Huaqiang Ruan  1 , Jiang Li  1 , Ting Wang  1 , Haiyun Ren  1
Affiliations
Review

Secretory Vesicles Targeted to Plasma Membrane During Pollen Germination and Tube Growth

Huaqiang Ruan et al. Front Cell Dev Biol. .

Abstract

Pollen germination and pollen tube growth are important biological events in the sexual reproduction of higher plants, during which a large number of vesicle trafficking and membrane fusion events occur. When secretory vesicles are transported via the F-actin network in proximity to the apex of the pollen tube, the secretory vesicles are tethered and fused to the plasma membrane by tethering factors and SNARE proteins, respectively. The coupling and uncoupling between the vesicle membrane and plasma membrane are also regulated by dynamic cytoskeleton, proteins, and signaling molecules, including small G proteins, calcium, and PIP2. In this review, we focus on the current knowledge regarding secretory vesicle delivery, tethering, and fusion during pollen germination and tube growth and summarize the progress in research on how regulators and signaling molecules participate in the above processes.

Keywords: F-actin; SNAREs; exocyst complex; plasma membrane; pollen; regulation; secretory vesicles.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Pattern of vesicle transport in pollen grains and pollen tubes. (A) AtFH5 is located to vesicles and promotes actin assembly, the force produced from microfilament polymerization push vesicles’ rotational movement to the potential germination sites. Bottom: The box in the upper is enlarged. (B) Vesicles are transported along the microfilaments by moto proteins in the shank region, giving rise to a reverse-fountain cytoplasmic streaming pattern, the microfilaments are arranged into an actin fringe at the subapical region. Top: Pollen grains with pollen tubes. Bar is 20 μm. Middle: The box in the top is enlarged. Bottom: The box in the middle is enlarged. (C) An enlarged image of dotted frame in A and B. Vesicles are tethered and fused to the plasma membrane by tethering factors and SNAREs. Objects are not to scale.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
SNAREs located in the plasma membrane and endosomes. Genes that are highly expressed in pollen, which are highlighted in red.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Anitei M., Ifrim M., Ewart M. A., Cowan A. E., Carson J. H., Bansal R., et al. (2006). A role for Sec8 in oligodendrocyte morphological differentiation. J. Cell Sci. 119 807–818. 10.1242/jcs.02785 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Aronov S., Gerst J. E. (2004). Involvement of the late secretory pathway in actin regulation and mRNA transport in yeast. J. Biol. Chem. 279 36962–36971. 10.1074/jbc.M402068200 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Berken A. (2006). ROPs in the spotlight of plant signal transduction. Cell Mol. Life Sci. 63 2446–2459. 10.1007/s00018-006-6197-1 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Berken A., Wittinghofer A. (2008). Structure and function of Rho-type molecular switches in plants. Plant Physiol. Biochem. 46 380–393. 10.1016/j.plaphy.2007.12.008 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bloch D., Pleskot R., Pejchar P., Potocky M., Trpkosova P., Cwiklik L., et al. (2016). Exocyst SEC3 and phosphoinositides define sites of exocytosis in pollen tube initiation and growth. Plant Physiol. 172 980–1002. 10.1104/pp.16.00690 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources