Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 27, 2025

Evaluation of Fertilization State by Tracing Sperm Nuclear Morphology in Arabidopsis Double Fertilization
Published on: August 29, 2019
Transcriptional repression specifies the central cell for double fertilization
Meng-Xia Zhang1, Shan-Shan Zhu1, Yong-Chao Xu2
1State Key Laboratory of Molecular and Developmental Biology, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101 Beijing, China.
Abstract:
Double fertilization is a key innovation for the evolutionary success of angiosperms by which the two fertilized female gametes, the egg cell and central cell, generate the embryo and endosperm, respectively. The female gametophyte (embryo sac) enclosed in the sporophyte is derived from a one-celled haploid cell lineage. It undergoes successive events of mitotic divisions, cellularization, and cell specification to give rise to the mature embryo sac, which contains the two female gametes accompanied by two types of accessory cells, namely synergids and antipodals. How the cell fate of the central cell is specified has long been equivocal and is further complicated by the structural diversity of female gametophyte across plant taxa. Here, MADS-box protein AGL80 was verified as a transcriptional repressor that directly suppresses the expression of accessory cell-specific genes to specify the central cell. Further genetic rescue and phylogenetic assay of the AGL80 orthologs revealed a possible conserved mechanism in the Brassicaceae family. Results from this study provide insight into the molecular determination of the second female gamete cell in Brassicaceae.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
RNA Polymerase II Accessory Proteins
Fertilization
Master Transcription Regulators
Master Transcription Regulators
The Ratio of X Chromosome to Autosomes
Normal male Drosophila has a ratio of one X chromosome to two sets of autosomes. In contrast, normal female...
Combinatorial Gene Control
The expression of more than 30,000 genes is controlled by approximately 2000-3000 transcription factors. This is possible because a single transcription factor can recognize more than one regulatory sequence. The specificity in gene...

