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SummaryUntil recently, only cytosolic acyl-CoA binding proteins (ACBPs) have been characterized. The isolation of an Arabidopsis thaliana cDNA encoding a novel membrane-associated ACBP that accumulates in developing seeds, designated ACBP1, has provided evidence for the existence of membrane-associated forms of ACBPs (Chye, 1998, Plant Mol. Biol. 38, 827-838). We now report on the isolation of its corresponding gene from an A. thaliana Columbia genomic library using the ACBP1 cDNA as a hybridization probe. Nucleotide sequence analysis of Arabidopsis ACBP1 showed that its promoter lacks a TATA box, resembling the promoters of rat, Drosophila and human genes encoding cytosolic ACBP and suggesting that it is a housekeeping gene. We show by Western blot analysis that ACBP1 expression in developing seeds coincides with lipid deposition and that homologues of membrane-associated ACBP1 exist in other plants. Using light microscopy, we show that ACBP1 is strongly expressed in the embryo at the cotyledons, hypocotyl, procambium of the axis and in most peripheral cells of the cotyledons and hypocotyl. Immunogold labelling localized ACBP1 to vesicles, to the plasma membrane especially at epidermal cells of heart, torpedo and cotyledonary stage embryos, and to the cell wall of the outer integument cells at the seed coat. Our results suggest that ACBP1 is involved in intermembrane lipid transport from the ER via vesicles to the plasma membrane where it could maintain a membrane-associated acyl pool; its immunolocalization to the cell wall of outer integument cells at the seed coat suggests a role in cuticle and cutin formation.

Abstract. The cytoskeletal organization of the embryo sac of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) was examined at maturity and during synergid degeneration, pollen-tube delivery and gamete transfer using rapid-frozen, freezesubstituted and chemically fixed material in combination with immunofluorescence and immunogold electron microscopy. Before fertilization, the synergid is a highly polarized cell with dense longitudinally aligned arrays of microtubules adjacent to the filiform apparatus at the micropylar end of the cell associated with major organelles. The cytoskeleton of the central cell is less polarized, with dense cortical microtubules in the micropylar and chalazal regions and looser, longitudinally oriented cortical microtubules in the lateral region. In the synergid and central cell, F-actin is frequently found at the surface of the organelles and co-localizes with either single microtubules or microtubule bundles. Egg cell microtubules are frequently cortical, randomly oriented and more abundant at the chalazal end of the cell; actin filaments are associated with microtubules and the cortex of the egg cell. At 48 h after pollination and before the pollen tube arrives, the onset of degeneration is evident in one of the two synergids: the electron density of cytoplasmic organelles and the ground cytoplasm increases and the nucleus becomes distorted. Although synergids otherwise remain intact, the vacuole collapses and organelles degenerate rapidly after pollen-tube entry. Abundant electron-dense material extends from the degenerated synergid into intercellular spaces at the chalazal end of the synergid and between the synergids, egg and central cell. Rhodamine-phalloidin and anti-actin immunogold labeling reveal that electron-dense aggregates in this region contain abundant actin forming two distinct bands termed "coronas". This actin is part of a mechanism in the egg apparatus which appears to precisely position and facilitate the access of male gametes to the egg and central cell for fusion.

The developmental stages of the maize embryo sac were correlated with the corresponding silk lengths of ear florets in the female inflorescence. The development of embryo sacs in the ovules of spikes occurs in a gradient pattern with the initiation of the embryo sac beginning at the base of the ear and progressing to the top. At the beginning of meiosis, the presence of conspicuous cortical microtubules coincides with the extensive elongation of the megasporocyte. The spindles at metaphase I and II align along the long axis of the megasporocyte leading to the linear alignment of the dyad and tetrad of megaspores. During megagametogenesis, micropylar and chalazal nuclei of the embryo sac undergo synchronized divisions and migration at the second and third mitosis. Radiate perinuclear microtubules are present during the interphase of the second and third mitosis, and inter-sister nuclear microtubules occur at the late four-nucleate embryo sac. The configuration and orientation of the spindles, phragmoplasts, and pairs of nuclei result in precise positioning of the nuclei. The fusion of the polar nuclei and the formation of a microtubule organizing center-like structure in the filiform apparatus occur right after the first division of the antipodal cells. The different patterns of organization of microtubules in the cells of the mature embryo sac reflect their structural adaptations for their future function.

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Synergid degeneration was examined in the isolated embryo sac and egg apparatus of Nicotiana tabacum using quantitative cytology, fluorochromatic reaction (FCR) and chlorotetracycline (CTC). Most synergid degeneration occurs after pollen tubes (PT) arrive in the ovarian chamber between 42 and 48 h after pollination; synergid degeneration was precluded when PT were prevented from entering the ovary by stylar excision indicating that the signal that triggers synergid degeneration travels only relatively short distances in this plant. There was no evidence for any preferentiality between right or left synergids with regard to cell size or degeneration pattern. FCR staining confirms that synergid degeneration involves the loss of membrane integrity and is a reliable indicator of the onset of degeneration. CTC labeling of the degenerated synergid reveals that a concentrated reserve of membrane-bound calcium is present in the receptive synergid, possibly aiding in the attraction, arrest and discharge of the PT, releasing the sperms into the receptive ES.