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Self‐incompatibility in flowering plants
Author(s) -
Dickinson Hugh G.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
bioessays
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.175
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1521-1878
pISSN - 0265-9247
DOI - 10.1002/bies.950120403
Subject(s) - pollination , biology , glycoprotein , pollen , mechanism (biology) , evolutionary biology , genetics , microbiology and biotechnology , botany , philosophy , epistemology
Self‐pollination in some groups of plants is prevented by a sophisticated biochemical signalling system. The molecule active in the female emerges as a highly charged glycoprotein, but the identity of the male determinant remains unknown. Studies of both the molecular biology and the physiology of the interaction suggest that the female polypeptide belongs to a family of glycoproteins which may play an additional, and more general, role in pollination. Pollen compatibility is controlled by one of two genetic systems and new information indicates a mechanism by which they may have arisen, together with the different stigma types with which they are correlated.