Semi-In Vivo Assay for Pollen Tube Attraction

In flowering plants, each pollen tube delivers two sperm cells into the ovule to complete double fertilization. During the process, pollen tubes need to be navigated into the ovule, where accurate and complex pre-ovule guidance and ovule guidance are required. In recent years, different methods have been established to study those genes involved in the regulation of pollen tube guidance. Semi-in vivo ovule targeting mimics in vivo pollen tube micropylar guidance, and the semi-in vivo ovule targeting assay has been used to investigate function of genes involved in micropylar guidance. Moreover, the ovule targeting assay is the best way to do live cell imaging, which facilitates observation of pollen tube reception, synergid cell degeneration, and semi-in vivo gamete fusion. Meanwhile, semi-in vivo pollen tube attraction assay is another useful method to directly determine whether a certain molecule has pollen tube attraction activity.