Illustrating Sperm Cell-Specific Expression in <I>Arabidopsis</I> Pollen (IMAGE)

University of Leicester

Illustrating Sperm Cell-Specific Expression in <I>Arabidopsis</I> Pollen

Caption

Pictured is a fluorescence image of an Arabidopsis pollen grain showing sperm cell-specific expression of a GFP-tagged marker of the IMPa-8 promoter along with a corresponding DAPI-stained image of the same pollen grain. The DAPI image shows the two densely-stained sperm cell nuclei and the diffusely-stained vegetative cell nuclei. In the GFP image, fluorescence is confined to the sperm cell nuclei, illustrating sperm cell-specific expression. The authors show that sperm cell specification of several genes, including IMPa-8, is regulated by the germline-specific transcription factor DUO POLLEN 1 (DUO1). Thus DUO1 has a major role in shaping the germline transcriptome and functions to commit progenitor germ cells to sperm cell differentiation.

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Image generated by Hoda Khatab (University of Leicester)

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