Arabidopsis thaliana Pollen Tube Culture for Multi-omics Studies

Abstract

Pollen tubes have been key models to study plant cell wall elongation. Arabidopsis thaliana, although small, is a nice model, easy to grow and with a large set of studies to simplify result integration and interpretation. Pollen tubes may be used for gene expression essays, but also for biochemical characterization of the cell wall composition. However, pollen tube culture methods though seemingly straightforward have often a multitude of small technical details crucial for success, quickly deterring the more inexperienced and setting back experiments for months at the time. Here we propose a detailed method to set up easily a pollen tube culture routine in any lab, with a minimal set of equipment, to isolate and process pollen tubes for gene expression and/or cell wall biochemistry studies.