Mechanisms of Zygotic Embryogenesis in Plants
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2020) | Viewed by 5410
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear colleagues,
During flower formation, female and male gametes are produced in developing ovaries and anthers, respectively. These gametes (egg and sperm cells) are highly specialized for gamete fusion, and the union of gametes results in the occurrence of a totipotent cell, zygote. Upon double fertilization, plasmogamy between sperm and egg cells arises, and sperm cell contents including nucleus, proteins, and RNAs are delivered into the egg cell. This delivery of male materials triggers the activation of the fused egg cell, and then karyogamy between male and female nuclei promptly progresses in the fused gametes, resulting in the formation of zygotic nucleus (emergence of zygote). In the zygotes, male and female components, mRNAs, proteins, and genomes are estimated to function synergistically to fulfill the development of zygotes. Zygotic genome activation occurs to progress the gene expression program for zygotic embryogenesis, instead of gamete formation/maintenance. In addition, cellular polarity in zygotes is reorganized to produce the asymmetric two-celled embryo, which is composed of two daughter cells with different cell fates and forms the initial apical-basal axis of embryo (plant body). Although these reproductive and developmental events of extreme importance occur sequentially in zygotes after gamete fusion, the molecular and cellular mechanisms in these events are largely unknown. Therefore, this Special Issue will focus on mechanisms in early zygotic embryogenesis.
Prof. Takashi Okamoto
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- egg cell
- sperm cell
- zygote
- plasmogamy
- karyogamy
- synergistic function of gametes
- zygotic activation
- zygotic genome activation
- zygotic development
- cell polarity
- asymmetric division
