Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 29 June 2001:
Vol. 292. no. 5526, p. 2393
DOI: 10.1126/science.292.5526.2393o
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

This Week in Science

The proteins on the surface of a pollen grain are likely participants in regulating effective pollination and self-incompatibility. Mayfield et al. (p. 2482) have now surveyed the larger proteins found on the surface of the Arabidopsis pollen grain. Fragmentary peptide sequences from those proteins above a size cut-off yielded enough information to identify the corresponding genes. Many of the pollen coat proteins were of two types--lipases (lipid cleaving proteins) and oleosins (lipid-binding proteins). The genes encoding the lipases and oleosins were clustered within the Arabidopsis genome. The allelic diversity and gene clustering of these two gene families may well facilitate the maintenance of species specificity in reproduction.




To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)