ERK3 regulates the integrity of epithelia

Plant sperm need a little help

“…In a related paper, Takahashi et al 8 also uncovered a role for DMP9 in fertilization, showing that RNAi-induced knockdown of DMP9 led to a modest (~20%), but consistent, reduction in double fertilization. Both groups found that the dmp mutant sperm that had failed to fuse underwent normal adhesion with the egg cell.…”

“…Within a short time after adhesion, one sperm cell fuses with the egg to generate the embryo, while the other sperm fuses with the central cell to generate the endosperm. Both of the new papers show that sperm with reduced DMP9 expression 8 or completely absent DMP8 and DMP9 expression 7 retained a higher capacity for fusion with the central cell than with the egg cell. These results likely are not a reflection of an inherent difference in the fusion capacity of the two female gametes, since the egg cell is preferentially fertilized in other fertilization-related mutants 13,14 .…”