Measurement of Cytomechanical Forces on Growing Pollen Tubes
CD BioSciences is committed to establishing automated, throughput-enhancing and precisely calibrated measurements and extending them to the biomechanical study of pollen tubes. We are capable of helping our customers to complete an accurate assessment of the mechanical properties of the cell wall along the length of the pollen tube to reveal the secrets of pollen tube growth mechanics.
Background
The pollen tube is a good model for studying aspects of growth mechanics because it is a single cell and does not need to take into account the influence of neighboring cells. Moreover, cell expansion is restricted to the apex, which allows a direct comparison of the mechanical properties of this highly dynamic region with those of the more proximal part in the shank, where the cell wall no longer changes. In addition, the biochemical composition of the pollen tube wall changes along the pollen tube axis, which can be assessed cytologically, thus enabling the measurement of different, well-defined composite cell wall materials in a single cell.
Over the last 20 years, many breakthroughs have been made in the field of biomechanics at the tissue and cellular level, largely due to improvements in instrumentation, such as the development of miniaturized, extremely sensitive force sensors and precise positioning systems to measure the small forces exerted by living biological samples. Some of these advanced techniques are now being applied to quantify the biomechanical properties of growing pollen tubes.
Fig.1 Multichannel Lab-on-a-Chip (LoC) device to parallelize pollen tube growth. (Vogler, 2017)
Our Services
Since the change of pollen tube growth direction or increase in the pushing force is controlled by the fine-tuning interaction between turgor pressure and cell wall ductility, we mainly quantify the biomechanical properties of growing pollen tubes by measuring these two parameters. The services we provide include but are not limited to:
- Measurement of turgor.
- Measurement of penetration forces.
- Measurement of the stiffness gradient of the pollen tube from the apex to the shank.
- High-resolution stiffness mapping on pollen tubes by cellular force microscopy (CEM).
- Investigation of the effects of expansion pressure and cell wall stiffness by finite element method (FEM)-based modeling methods.
Applications
- Establishment of better models for pollen tube growth.
- Study on the interactions between the biochemical and mechanical properties of the cell wall during cell growth and morphogenesis.
- Study on the mechanisms underlying the growth of pollen tube tips.
Our Advantages
- Robust and scalable biophysical assays
- Short experiment period and low cost
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Complete analysis data
CD BioSciences has a state-of-the-art biophysical analysis platform. We are well placed to provide our customers with the measurement of cytomechanical forces on growing pollen tubes, providing the experimental basis for an in-depth understanding of the mechanical control of pollen tube top growth. If you are interested in our services, please contact us. We are happy to discuss the details of the project with you and formulate the best experimental scheme.
Reference
- Vogler, H.; et al. Measuring cytomechanical forces on growing pollen tubes. Pollen tip growth. Springer. 2017: 65-85.
For research use only, not
intended for any clinical use.
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