“Ready-Set-Grow” Pollinations and fertilization Activate genes for nutrient delivery for fruit set
Flower plants rely on pollination and fertilization to set seed and fruit, key products of most crops. It remains mysterious as how the molecular machinery is switched on upon pollination to deliver a massive amount of nutrients required for the impending seed and fruit formation. To address this question, an international visiting PhD student, now Dr Shen Si, from China Agricultural University spent two years in ACRCCI to research this topic under the supervision of Prof Yong-Ling Ruan
Flower plants rely on pollination and fertilization to set seed and fruit, key products of most crops. It remains mysterious as how the molecular machinery is switched on upon pollination to deliver a massive amount of nutrients required for the impending seed and fruit formation. To address this question, an international visiting PhD student, now Dr Shen Si, from China Agricultural University spent two years in ACRCCI to research this topic under the supervision of Prof Yong-Ling Ruan .
By conducting a series of molecular and physiological analyses, Shen et al (2019) discovered that pollination and fertilization activate the expression of enzyme that hydrolyses sucrose into glucose and fructose and different classes of sugar transporters in the style and ovaries, respectively. The findings indicate that the flower organs, style and ovary, can perceive ‘signals’ from pollination and fertilization, respectively, to boost their capacity to deliver carbon resource for seed and fruit set.
The work is published in Frontiers in Plant Science with following web link:
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2019.00506
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