Molecular aspects of recognition and response in the pollen-stigma interaction.

Abstract

Although fertilization in plants is fundamental to life, our understanding of the process at the molecular level is restricted to a few facets of a few systems; predictably, the best information has come from the simplest systems. For example, the first event of fertilization in some algal species is direct membrane contact of gametes which do not have cell walls, and the recognition of compatible gametes is apparently mediated by essentially the same sort of reaction which occurs during the mutual recognition of animal cells. The cellular events leading to fertilization in higher plants are more complex: in most cases not only are there a series of interactions between the haploid pollen ho..