Video 8
 

Video 8. Pollen tube interaction with the synergid cell in an in vitro guidance assay

Time-lapse imaging of DsRed-tagged pollen tubes entering the ovule and traveling within the ovule before approaching the GFP-tagged synergid cell within the female gametophyte.

Left video, time-lapse images captured in the red and green channels. Right video, time-lapse images captured in the green channel only.

The time elapsed between frames is 10 minutes (indicated on the top left hand corner of each movie).

In this example, the pollen tube arrives at the synergid cell at 30 minutes, synergid degeneration initiates at 330 minutes (note the change in cell volume, indicated by a black star next to the synergid cell in the left movie), and pollen tube discharge occurs at 350 minutes.

Pollen tube discharge occurs ~20 minutes after the synergid cell has begun to degenerate.

Ref: Nikolova, N*., Palanivelu, R*., King, E., Copenhaver, G., and Drews, G. N. (2007). Plant Physiology, 144:1753-1762.