2000/09/01 by Jean‐Claude Mollet, Jean-Claude Mollet, Sang-Youl Park +3 · 3 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Plant Molecular Biology Research #Plant Reproductive Biology #Polysaccharides and Plant Cell Walls
paper · pdf · doi:10.1105/tpc.12.9.1737
openalex publication_date 2000/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Pollen tube cells adhere to the wall surface of the stylar transmitting tract epidermis in lily. This adhesion has been proposed as essential for the proper delivery of the sperm cells to the ovule. An in vitro adhesion bioassay has been used to isolate two stylar molecules required for lily pollen tube adhesion. The first molecule was determined to be a small, cysteine-rich protein with some sequence similarity to lipid transfer proteins and now called stigma/stylar cysteine-rich adhesin (SCA). The second, larger, molecule has now been purified from style fragments and characterized. Chemical composition, specific enzyme degradations, and immunolabeling data support the idea that this molecule required for pollen tube adhesion is a pectic polysaccharide. In vitro binding assays revealed that this lily stylar adhesive pectin and SCA are able to bind to each other in a pH-dependent manner.