Gene expression in mature pollen and sperm cells versus young seedling as a vegetative sporophyte reference control. Oryza sativa

Sperm cells represent the male partner that fuses with the egg cell during fertilization in all multi-cellular eukaryotic organisms, and, in flowering plants, is a founder of both embryo and nutritive endosperm. We examined the transcriptome of Oryza sativa ssp. japonica using the Affymetrix 57K rice genome GeneChip to provide an overview of genes activated in the paternal gamete. We used microarrays to detail the global program of gene expression in mature pollen and sperm cells at anthesis, which constitutes the stage immediately preceding pollen germination and gamete deposition leading up to fertilization. This documents the condition of the male gametophytic cells prior to fertilization. Keywords: tissue expression profile, male gametophyte, sperm, pollen, seedling Overall design: Male gametophytic cells consisting of isolated pollen and isolated sperm cells collected at anthesis were compared with seedlings containing leaf, stem, root and apical meristems as a vegetative sporophytic control; three separate biological replicates were used.

在所有多细胞真核生物的受精过程中，精子细胞均为与卵细胞发生融合的雄性配子；而在开花植物中，精子细胞同时是胚胎与营养型胚乳的发育起源。本研究采用Affymetrix 57K水稻基因组基因芯片（GeneChip），对粳稻（Oryza sativa ssp. japonica）的转录组（transcriptome）进行分析，以全面解析父本配子中激活基因的表达概况。我们通过微阵列芯片（microarrays）技术，详细解析了扬花期（anthesis）成熟花粉与精子细胞的全局基因表达谱，该阶段恰好处于花粉萌发与配子沉积（为受精过程做准备）的前夕。本数据集完整记录了受精前雄性配子体细胞的生理状态。
关键词：组织表达谱、雄性配子体（male gametophyte）、精子、花粉、幼苗
实验设计概述：将扬花期采集的分离成熟花粉与分离精子细胞组成的雄性配子体细胞，与包含叶片、茎秆、根系及顶端分生组织的幼苗（作为营养孢子体对照）进行表达谱对比；实验共设置3组独立生物学重复。