Small RNA pathways are present and functional in the angiosperm male gametophyte. by Grant-Downton, R, Hafidh, S, Twell, D, Dickinson, H

“…Small RNAs are thus likely to make a hitherto unappreciated contribution to male gametophyte gene expression patterns, pollen development, and gametogenesis.…”

Bridging the generation gap: flowering plant gametophytes and animal germlines reveal unexpected similarities. by Dickinson, H, Grant-Downton, R

“…A wide range of data have accumulated over the past century which suggest that alternation from sporophyte to gametophyte in angiosperms includes a significant phase of 'informational reprogramming', leaving the founder cells of the gametophyte developmentally uncommitted. …”

Arabidopsis kinesins HINKEL and TETRASPORE act redundantly to control cell plate expansion during cytokinesis in the male gametophyte. by Oh, SA, Bourdon, V, Das 'Pal, M, Dickinson, H, Twell, D

“…The data demonstrate a functionally redundant role for HIK and TES in cell plate expansion during male gametophytic cytokinesis, extending the concept that different modes of cytokinesis are executed by a common signaling pathway, but reinforcing the individuality of gametophytic cytokinesis in its requirement for either TES or HIK.…”

PCP-A1, a defensin-like Brassica pollen coat protein that binds the S locus glycoprotein, is the product of gametophytic gene expression. by Doughty, J, Dixon, S, Hiscock, S, Willis, A, Parkin, I, Dickinson, H

MicroRNA and tasiRNA diversity in mature pollen of Arabidopsis thaliana. by Grant-Downton, R, Le Trionnaire, G, Schmid, R, Rodriguez-Enriquez, J, Hafidh, S, Mehdi, S, Twell, D, Dickinson, H

“…However, little is known about small RNAs in their reproductive cells, especially in post-meiotic cells of the gametophyte generation. Pollen - the male gametophyte - is the specialised haploid structure that generates and delivers the sperm cells to the female gametes at fertilisation. …”

An ancient mechanism controls the development of cells with a rooting function in land plants. by Menand, B, Yi, K, Jouannic, S, Hoffmann, L, Ryan, E, Linstead, P, Schaefer, D, Dolan, L

“…The phylogeny of land plants supports the hypothesis that early land plants were bryophyte-like and possessed a dominant gametophyte and later the sporophyte rose to dominance. …”

The evolution of root hairs and rhizoids. by Jones, V, Dolan, L

“…Rhizoids develop on the free-living gametophytes of vascular and non-vascular plants and on both gametophytes and sporophytes of the extinct rhyniophytes. …”

Body building on land: morphological evolution of land plants. by Dolan, L

“…The life cycle of the land plant body comprises two multicellular stages -- one haploid (gametophyte) and the other diploid (sporophyte). Recent discoveries suggest that the genes controlling diploid development in ancestral green algal zygotes diversified in the land plant lineage where they control the development of the diploid body plan. …”

Plant meiosis: the means to 1N. by Bhatt, A, Canales, C, Dickinson, H

“…In addition to providing an opportunity for genetic reassortment, it marks the transition from diploid sporophyte to haploid gametophyte. Recent molecular data suggest that, like animals, plants possess a common set of genes (also conserved in eukaryotic microorganisms) responsible for meiotic recombination and chromosome segregation. …”

Plant proteases: from phenotypes to molecular mechanisms. by van der Hoorn, R

“…The emerging picture is that plant proteases are key regulators of a striking variety of biological processes, including meiosis, gametophyte survival, embryogenesis, seed coat formation, cuticle deposition, epidermal cell fate, stomata development, chloroplast biogenesis, and local and systemic defense responses. …”

The structure and chemistry of plastid differentiation during male meiosis in Lilium henryi. by Dickinson, H

“…The activities of the MPA and those of the filaments are discussed in terms of changes in the organelle population as a whole, and also in consideration of the fundamental events occurring elsewhere in the cells during the alternation from the diploid sporophyte to the haploid gametophyte.…”

Genomic imprinting and endosperm development in flowering plants. by Vinkenoog, R, Bushell, C, Spielman, M, Adams, S, Dickinson, H, Scott, R

“…As different sets of genes are imprinted and hence silenced in maternal and paternal gametophyte genomes, the contributions of the parental genomes to the offspring are not equal. …”

Sporophytic self-incompatibility in Senecio squalidus (Asteraceae): S allele dominance interactions and modifiers of cross-compatibility and selfing rates. by Brennan, A, Tabah, D, Harris, S, Hiscock, S

“…Sporophytic SI (SSI) is controlled by a single multi-allelic locus, S, which is expressed in the diploid (sporophyte) plant to determine the SI phenotype of its haploid (gametophyte) pollen. This allows complex patterns of independent S allele dominance interactions in male (pollen) and female (pistil) reproductive tissues. …”

The two “rules of speciation” in species with young sex chromosomes by Filatov, D

“…Furthermore, I suggest that “exposure” of autosomal or sex‐linked recessive species incompatibilities in the haploid plant gametophyte may mimic the presence of HR in plants. …”

RSL class I genes controlled the development of epidermal structures in the common ancestor of land plants by Proust, H, Honkanen, S, Jones, V, Morieri, G, Prescott, H, Kelly, S, Ishizaki, K, Kohchi, T, Dolan, L

“…Furthermore, we discovered that RSL class I genes are also required for the development of multicellular axillary hairs on the gametophyte of the moss Physcomitrella patens. Because class I RSL proteins also control the development of rhizoids in mosses and root hairs in angiosperms [13, 14], these data demonstrate that the function of RSL class I genes was to control the development of structures derived from single epidermal cells in the common ancestor of the land plants. …”

The role of class 1 KNOX genes in sporophyte evolution by Frangedakis, E

“…<p>Land plants are characterized by the alternation of two generations: the haploid gametophyte and the diploid sporophyte. As land plants evolved from bryophytes to vascular plants, the sporophyte became the dominant generation in the life cycle. …”

The mutation rate and the age of the sex chromosomes in Silene latifolia by Krasovec, M, Chester, M, Ridout, K, Filatov, D

“…Many aspects of sex chromosome evolution are common to both plants and animals [1], but the process of Y chromosome degeneration, where genes on the Y become non-functional over time, may be much slower in plants due to purifying selection against deleterious mutations in the haploid gametophyte [2, 3]. Testing for differences in Y degeneration between the kingdoms has been hindered by the absence of accurate age estimates for plant sex chromosomes. …”

Overexpressing the multiple-stress responsive gene At1g74450 reduces plant height and male fertility in Arabidopsis thaliana by Harberd, N, Visscher, A, Belfield, E, Vlad, D, Irani, N, Moore, I

“…Interestingly, the effects of stress on crop productivity are most severe at developmental stages such as male gametophyte development. However, the molecular factors and regulatory networks underlying environmental stress-induced male gametophytic alterations are still largely unknown. …”

Genetic and molecular genetic studies of sporophytic self- incompatibility in senecio squalidus by Lou, Y

“…Among its low number of S haplotypes, novel dominance interactions were observed in pollen (male gametophyte). Then to identify the S locus, genomic maps of model plants in the Asteraceae family (sunflower, lettuce, chicory and Tolpis coronopifolia) that are reported to contain molecular markers or quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with SI or self-fertility, were analyczed to identify any shared region. …”

MICROSPORE-DERIVED EMBRYOS IN BRASSICA - THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DIVISION SYMMETRY IN POLLEN MITOSIS-I TO EMBRYOGENIC DEVELOPMENT by Zaki, M, Dickinson, H

“…An attempt has been made to manipulate the cytological processes regulating the switch from gametophytic to sporophytic development induced by culturing the microspores of higher plants. …”