[Q] Anther culture - Space aliens stole my mitochondria!

Marco_Bleeker mbleeker at euronet.nl
Sun Jun 18 01:48:35 EST 1995

>When using anther culture, pollen grains are dusted onto the surface of a 
>nutrient medium.  Occasionally, one will germinate into a monoploid plant.  My 
>question is:
>   Where does this plant get its mitochondria from?
>Do pollen grains have mitochondria?

  That appears to be the case than.

> If so, how come mitochondrial DNA is always inherited down the maternal line?

  A pollen is not exactly a spermcell. It grows out to become a very small 
gametophyt. Think of ferns, but then much smaller and on/ in  the receptical 
of the overy. This explains the presence of the mitochondria. The gametophyt 
in turn, produces the male 'sperm', not much more then a nucleus, which has no 
mitochondria. The exceptional monoploid plant your talking about, must have 
taken mitochondria from other tissue of the same gametophyt...

  Well, I have no experience here, just a shot at it as you called it, based 
on more general knowledge...

  Bye, marco

<mbleeker at euronet.nl>------------<http://www.euronet.nl/users/mbleeker/>
<Marco Bleeker>------------<nl-en-de-fr>------------<Amsterdam, Holland>

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