Fifty years of sperm cell isolations: from structural to omic studies

The fusion of male and female gametes is a fundamental process in the perpetuation and diversification of species. During the last 50 years, significant efforts have been made to isolate and characterize sperm cells from flowering plants, and to identify how these cells interact with female gametes to achieve double fertilization. The first techniques and analytical approaches not only provided structural and biochemical characterizations of plant sperm cells but also paved the way for in vitro fertilization studies. Further technological advances then led to unique insights into sperm biology at the transcriptomic, proteomic, and epigenetic level. Starting with a historical overview of sperm cell isolation techniques, we provide examples of how these contributed to create our current knowledge of sperm cell biology, and point out remaining challenges.