Pollen development, a genetic and transcriptomic view

Abstract

The haploid gametophyte generation occupies a short but vital phase in the life cycle of flowering plants. The male gametophyte consists of just two or three cells when shed from the anthers as pollen grains. It is this functional specialization that is thought to be a key factor in the evolutionary success of flowering plants. Moreover, pollen development offers an excellent model system to study many fundamentally important biological processes such as polarity, cell fate determination, cell cycle regulation, cell signaling and mechanisms of gene regulation. In the first part of this chapter we review the progress achieved through genetic analysis in identifying gametophytic mutants and genes required for key aspects of male gametogenesis. In the second part we discuss recent advances in genome-wide transcriptomic studies of haploid gene expression and a critical evaluation of data treatment methods. Finally we provide a perspective of the impact of these data on future strategies for understanding the gametophytic control of pollen development. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.