Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-19T01:49:02.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Isolation and microinjection of active sperm nuclei into egg cells and central cells of isolated maize embryo sacs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

E. Matthys-Rochon*
Affiliation:
Reconnaissance Cellulaire et Amélioration des Plantes, UMR 9938 NRS-INRA-ENS, Lyon, France.
R. Mòl
Affiliation:
Reconnaissance Cellulaire et Amélioration des Plantes, UMR 9938 NRS-INRA-ENS, Lyon, France.
P. Heizmann
Affiliation:
Reconnaissance Cellulaire et Amélioration des Plantes, UMR 9938 NRS-INRA-ENS, Lyon, France.
C. Dumas
Affiliation:
Reconnaissance Cellulaire et Amélioration des Plantes, UMR 9938 NRS-INRA-ENS, Lyon, France.
*
E. Matthys-Rochon, Reconnaissance Cellulaire et Amélioration des Plantes, UMR 9938 CNRS-INRA-ENS, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, 46 Allée d′Italie, F-69364 Lyon, Cédex 07, France. Fax: (33) 72 72 86 80.

Summary

Artificial fertilisation was attempted in maize by microinjecting sperm nuclei into the egg cell or central cell of isolated embryo sacs. A protocol for isolation of nuclei from pollen grains was developed and a pure fraction of sperm nuclei was obtained after centrifugation on a Percoll gradient. The in vitro transcriptional activity of the nuclei was tested by incorporation of radioactive UTP into RNA. The level of labelled nucleotide incorporation increased and reached a maximum after between 30 and 40 min in the incubation medium. The embryo sacs were enzymatically isolated and their viability determined by observation of cytoplasmic streaming in the female cells. The embryo sacs were immobilised by embedding in low-melting-point agarose and a single male nucleus was injected with a bevelled microcapillary. The presence of the injected nucleus in the egg or central cell was demonstrated using a cytological approach. This paper presents an alternative method for studying the intimate processes of fertilisation in plants.

Type
Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Batygina, T.B. (1974). Fertilisation process of cereals. In Fertilisation in Higher Plants, ed. Linskens, H.F. pp. 205–20. AmsterdamNorth-Holland.Google Scholar
Chaboud, A. & Perez, R. (1992). Generative cells and male gametes: isolation, physiology, and biochemistry. Int. Rev. Cytol. 140, 205–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dale, B. (1991). Mechanism of fertilisation: plants to humans. In Cell to Cell Signals in Plants and Animals, ed. Neuhoff, V. & Friend, J., pp. 8390. NATO ASI series, vol. H51. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Paepe, R., Koulou, A., Pham, J.L. & Brown, S.C. (1990). Nuclear DNA content and separation of Nicotiana sylvestris vegetative and generative nuclei at various stages of male gametogenesis. Plant Sci. 70, 255–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dumas, C. & Mogensen, H.L. (1993). Gametes and fertilisation: maize (Zea mays L.) as a model system for experimental embryogenesis in flowering plants. Plant Cell, special issue on plant reproduction (in press).Google Scholar
Dumas, C. & Russell, S.D. (1992). Plant reproductive biology: trends. Int. Rev. Cytol. 140, 565–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dupuis, I., Roeckel, P., Matthys-Rochon, E. & Dumas, C. (1987). Procedure to isolate viable sperm cells from the corn (Zea mays L.) pollen grain. Plant Physiol. 85, 876–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faure, J.E., Mogensen, H.L., Dumas, C., Lörz, H. & Kranz, E. (1993). Karyogamy after electrofusion of single egg and sperm cell protoplasts from maize: cytological evidence and time course. Plant Cell 5, 747–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gay, G., Kerhoas, C. & Dumas, C. (1987). Quality of a stress sensitive Cucurbita pepo L. pollen. Planta 171, 82–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haskell, D.W. & Owen, M.R. (1985). RNA synthesis by vegetative and sperm nuclei of trinucleate pollen. Cytologia 50, 805–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, W.A. (1962). Botanical Histochemistry. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Keijzer, C.J., Reinders, M.C. & Leferink-Ten-Klooster, H.B. (1989). A micormanipulation method for atificial fertilisation in Torenia. In Sexual Reproduction in Higher Plants, ed. Cresti, M.Gori, P. & Pacini, E., pp. 119–24. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Kranz, E. & Lörz, H. (1993). In vitro fertilisation with isolated, single gametes results in zygotic embryogenesis and fertile maize plants. Plant Cell. 5, 739–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kranz, E., Bautor, J. & Lorz, H. (1991). Electrofusion-mediated transmission of cytoplasmic organelles through the in vitro fertilisation process, fusion of sperm cells with synergids and central cells, and cell reconstitution in maize. Sex. Plant Reprod. 4, 1721.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kranz, E., Lörz, H., Digonnet, C. & Faure, J.E. (1992). In vitro fusion of gametes and production of zygotes. Int. Rev. Cytol. 140, 407–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lafountain, K.L. & Mascarenhas, J.P. (1972). Isolation of vegetative and generative nuclei from pollen tubes. Exp. Cell Res. 73, 233–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luthe, D.S. & Quatrano, R.S. (1980). Transcription of isolated wheat nuclei. Plant Physiol. 65, 305–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mascarenhas, J.P. (1990). Gene activity during pollen development. Annu. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol. 41, 317–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthys-Rochon, E. (1992). In vitro fertilisation in flowering plants. In Reproductive Biology and Plant Breeding, ed. Dattée, Y., Dumas, C. & Gallais, A. pp. 197204. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthys-Rochon, E., Vergne, P., Detchepare, S. & Dumas, C. (1987). Male germ unit isolation from the tricellular pollen species: Brassica oleracea, Zea mays and Triticum aestivum. Plant Physiol. 83, 464–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Matthys-Rochon, E., Digonnet, C. & Dumas, C. (1993). Characterisation of Zea mays embryo sac using fluorescent probes and microinjection of lucifer yellow into the female cells. In Biotechnology Applications of Microinjection, Microscopic Imaging and Fluorescence, ed. Bach, P.H.Reynolds, C.H.Clark, J.M.Mottley, J. & Poole, P.L., pp. 5360. New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mogensen, H. L. (1990). Fertilisation and early embryogenesis. In Reproductive Versatility in the Grasses, ed. Chapman, G.P., pp 7699. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mòl, R., Matthys-Rochon, E. & Dumas, C. (1993 a). In vitro culture of fertilised embryo sacs of maize: zygotes and two-celled proembryos can develop into plants. Planta 189, 213–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mòl, R., Matthys-Rochon, E. & Dumas, C. (1993 b). The kinetics of cytological events during double fertilisation in Zea mays L. Plant J (in Press).Google Scholar
Perreault, S.D., Wolff, R.A. & Zirkin, B.R. (1984). The role of disulfide bond reduction during mammalian sperm nuclear decondensation in vivo. Dev. Biol. 101, 160–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perreault, S.D., Barbee, R.R., Elstein, K.H., Zucker, R.M. & Keefer, C.L. (1988). Interspecies differences in the stability of mammalian sperm nuclei assessed in vivo by sperm injection and in vitro by flow cytometry. Biol. Reprod. 39, 157–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poccia, D. (1986). Remodeling of nucleoproteins during gametogenesis, fertilisation and early develpment. Int. Rev. Cytol. 105, 165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rentrop, M., Knapp, B., Winter, H. & Schweizer, J. (1986). Aminoalkylsilane-treated glass slides as support for in situ hybridisation of keratin cDNAs to frozen tissue sections under varying fixation and pretreatment conditions. Histochem. J. 18, 271–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reynolds, T.L. & Raghavan, V. (1982). An autoradiographic study of RNA synthesis during maturation and germination of pollen grains of Hyoscyamus niger. Protoplasma 3, 177–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roeckel, P. (1990). Transformation du maïs par la voie sexuée mâle: utilisation du pollen et des gametes isolés comme vecteurs d'ADN transformant. PhD thesis, Université Claude Bernard, Lyon, France.Google Scholar
Russell, S.D. (1992). Double fertilisation. Int. Rev. Cytol. 140, 357–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E.F. & Maniatis, T. (1989). Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.Google Scholar
Slater, J.R., Venis, M.A. & Grierson, D. (1978). Characterisation of ribonucleic acid synthesis by nuclei isolated from Zea mays. Planta 144, 8993.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, P.J., Friede, M.H., Scott, B.J. & Von Holt, C. (1988). Isolation of nuclei from melittin destabilised cells. Anal. Biochem. 169, 390–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tauvydas, K.J. (1970). Mass isolation of pea nuclei. Plant Physiol. 47, 499503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Theunis, C.H., Pierson, E.S. & Cresti, M. (1991). Isolation of male and female gametes in higher plants. Sex. Plant Reprod. 4, 145–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vazart, B. (1955). Contribution â l'étude caryologique des éléments reproducteurs et de la fécondation chez les végétaux Angiospermes. Rev. Cytol. Biol. végét. 16, 209407.Google Scholar
Verhoeven, H.A. & Blaas, J. (1992). Direct cell to cell transfer of organelles by microinjection. Plant Cell Rep. 10, 613–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wagner, V.T., Song, Y.S., Matthys-Rochon, E. & Dumas, C. (1989). Observations on the isolated embryo sac of Zea mays L.. Plant Sci. 59, 127–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wassarman, P. (1987). The biology and chemistry of fertilisation. Science 235, 553–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, H.Y. & Zhou, C. (1992). Experimental plant reproductive biology and reproductive cell manipulation in higher plants: now and the future. Am. J. Bot. 79, 354–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar