Life Sciences Commons^™

Reverse Genetics Approach To Examine Myosin Xi Functions In Pollen Tube Growth, Stephanie Lin Madison

Doctoral Dissertations

Pollen tube growth is an essential aspect of plant reproduction because it is the mechanism through which non-motile sperm cells are delivered to ovules thus allowing fertilization to occur. A pollen tube is a single cell that only grows at the tip, and this tip growth depends on actin filaments. Plants encode class VIII and class XI myosins as actin-based motor proteins, of which class XI myosins are required for cell expansion in vegetative tissues.

In Arabidopsis thaliana, 6 of 13 myosin XI genes are expressed in pollen: XIA, XIB, XIC, XID, XIE, and …

The Identification And Characterization Of A Group Of Er Tpr-Containing Adapter Proteins, Johan C. Sunryd

Doctoral Dissertations

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is an organelle responsible for a variety of functions in all eukaryotic cells. Some of these functions are localized to specific regions in the ER, such as the ribosome-studded rough ER sheets or the ribosome-free smooth ER sheets. The smooth ER sheets have the ability to form ER tubules, which extend throughout the cell and make contact with other organelles. In order to accommodate these localized functional regions, a certain degree of heterogeneity and compartmentalization into sub-domains exists within the ER. Since the ER membrane and lumen are contiguous, the compartmentalization of the ER into sub-domain …