Gamete interaction and fusion during double fertilization.

Successful double fertilization is essential for the production of the endosperm and the embryo, and thus forms the basis of yield for almost all agricultural crops. The aim of our project is to identify proteins that act on the male and female gamete surfaces to regulate gamete compatibility and fertilization success. By using isolated gametes from Arabidopsis thaliana and Zea mays for microarray hybridization and RNAseq we identified several promising candidate genes, which will be functionally characterized as part of the proposed project.