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AOBPreview originally published online on August 19, 2009
Annals of Botany 2009 104(6):1045-1056; doi:10.1093/aob/mcp193
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

The distribution of cell wall polymers during antheridium development and spermatogenesis in the Charophycean green alga, Chara corallina

David S. Domozych1,*, Iben Sørensen2 and William G. T. Willats2

1 Department of Biology and Skidmore Microscopy Imaging Center, Skidmore College, 815 North Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866, USA
2 Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen Biocentre, Ole Maaløes Vej 5, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark

* For correspondence. E-mail ddomoz{at}skidmore.ed

Received: 24 April 2009    Returned for revision: 27 May 2009    Accepted: 8 July 2009    Published electronically: 19 August 2009

Background and Aims: The production of multicellular gametangia in green plants represents an early evolutionary development that is found today in all land plants and advanced clades of the Charophycean green algae. The processing of cell walls is an integral part of this morphogenesis yet very little is known about cell wall dynamics in early-divergent green plants such as the Charophycean green algae. This study represents a comprehensive analysis of antheridium development and spermatogenesis in the green alga, Chara corallina.

Methods: Microarrays of cell wall components and immunocytochemical methods were employed in order to analyse cell wall macromolecules during antheridium development.

Key Results: Cellulose and pectic homogalacturonan epitopes were detected throughout all cell types of the developing antheridium including the unique cell wall protuberances of the shield cells and the cell walls of sperm cell initials. Arabinogalactan protein epitopes were distributed only in the epidermal shield cell layers and anti-xyloglucan antibody binding was only observed in the capitulum region that initially yields the sperm filaments. During the terminal stage of sperm development, no cell wall polymers recognized by the probes employed were found on the scale-covered sperm cells.

Conclusions: Antheridium development in C. corallina is a rapid event that includes the production of cell walls that contain polymers similar to those found in land plants. While pectic and cellulosic epitopes are ubiquitous in the antheridium, the distribution of arabinogalactan protein and xyloglucan epitopes is restricted to specific zones. Spermatogenesis also includes a major switch in the production of extracellular matrix macromolecules from cell walls to scales, the latter being a primitive extracellular matrix characteristic of green plants.

Key words: Chara corallina, antheridium, cell wall, spermatogenesis, pectins


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