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Updated: Mar 31, 2026

Live Imaging of Arabidopsis Pollen Tube Reception and Double Fertilization Using the Semi-In Vitro Cum Septum Method
Published on: February 24, 2023
Intercellular communication in Arabidopsis thaliana pollen discovered via AHG3 transcript movement from the
Hua Jiang1, Jun Yi1, Leonor C Boavida2
1Plant Gene Expression Center, US Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Albany, CA 94710; Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; Department of Plant Biology, Uppsala BioCenter, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden; Linnean Center of Plant Biology, Uppsala, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden;
Abstract:
An Arabidopsis pollen grain (male gametophyte) consists of three cells: the vegetative cell, which forms the pollen tube, and two sperm cells enclosed within the vegetative cell. It is still unclear if there is intercellular communication between the vegetative cell and the sperm cells. Here we show that ABA-hypersensitive germination3 (AHG3), encoding a protein phosphatase, is specifically transcribed in the vegetative cell but predominantly translated in sperm cells. We used a series of deletion constructs and promoter exchanges to document transport of AHG3 transcripts from the vegetative cell to sperm and showed that their transport requires sequences in both the 5' UTR and the coding region. Thus, in addition its known role in transporting sperm during pollen tube growth, the vegetative cell also contributes transcripts to the sperm cells.
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