Scientists solve plant sperm puzzleChloroplasts are where plant cells perform photosynthesis and whe

Scientists solve plant sperm puzzle

Chloroplasts are where plant cells perform photosynthesis and wheat, like many other plants, inherits chloroplasts only from the mother through small precursors called plastids.  

But how this happened was unknown – why didn’t the male’s chloroplast DNA travel with the rest in sperm? 

By tagging plastids in wheat with a protein that glowed green scientists at Rothamsted Research and the University of Manchester could watch them in developing pollen grains. They saw for the first time that plastids are degraded in sperm cells just before fertilisation, meaning only plastids from the mother plant are inherited by the offspring.

In the image above the top line shows the protein attached to the plastids in wheat pollen, in the bottom row it is untargeted.

The finding could be used to help breed better strains of wheat, one of the world’s most important and valuable crops.

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Image: Huw Jones, Rothamsted Research