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Description
Gamete nuclear migration is a dynamic and fundamental cellular process for successful fertilization in both
animals and plants. Most animals and early diverging land plants, such as ferns, control gamete nuclear
migration by microtubules. However, flowering plants have evolved a novel system where actin filaments
(F-actin) play the essential role in sperm nuclear migration. Prior to fertilization, female gametes generate
constant movement of an F-actin meshwork from the plasma membrane periphery towards the center of the
cell, where the nucleus is located. Upon sperm nucleus release into the female gamete, the sperm nucleus
migrates along with this F-actin meshwork inward movement, for karyogamy. The membrane-anchored
Rac/Rop small GTPase and a unique ARP2/3-independent WAVE/SCAR pathway are essential for the Factin
meshwork movement and sperm nuclear migration in the central cell, one of the two female gametes
in flowering plants. Myosins and formins also play roles in F-actin dynamics for fertilization; however, the
mechanism of how these factors and pathways coordinate to precisely control F-actin dynamics and sperm
nuclear migration in flowering plants remains largely unknown. By combining real-time live-cell imaging
and computational simulations through the collaboration of plant molecular biology lab (Kawashima,
University of Kentucky) and computer simulation lab (Abel, University of Tennessee, Knoxville)
dissections of the molecular and cellular mechanisms that control F-actin meshwork movement in the
female gamete for sperm nuclear migration will be carried out in the flowering plant, Arabidopsis thaliana.
Status | Active |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 1/15/24 → 12/31/26 |
Funding
- National Science Foundation
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Projects
- 1 Active
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Collaborative Research: How Do Plants Control Sperm Nuclear Migration For Successful Fertilization? (47.074)
Kawashima, T. (PI)
1/15/24 → 12/31/26
Project: Research project