engleski

A genomic approach to understand female gametophyte function in maize and wheat

From animals, it is known that the egg cell contains the greatest transcript complexity of any known cell types and that transcript profiles are dynamically changing after fertilisation and throughout embryogenesis, since maternal transcripts are replaced by new expressed zygotic/embryonic genes (Baugh et al., 2003). Compared to animals, very little is known about the transcripts stored in plant egg cells or the genes which are expressed early after fertilisation. Up to now, mainly genetic studies (screening for embryo mutants) and the use of related systems like somatic embryogenesis or androgenesis have led to the identification of a few key genes involved in embryogenesis (Mordhorst et al., 1997 ; Jürgens, 2001 ; Boutilier et al., 2002). Therefore, the use of isolated egg cells, zygotes and pro-embryos for comparative studies of gene expression profiles is a very promising approach to identify new key genes involved in fertilisation and very early embryogenesis.

egg cell; fertilization; embryogenesis

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