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First published online December 23, 2004; 10.1104/pp.104.050773

Plant Physiology 137:274-286 (2005)
© 2005 American Society of Plant Biologists

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CELL BIOLOGY AND SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION

More Than a Leak Sealant. The Mechanical Properties of Callose in Pollen Tubes1

Elodie Parre and Anja Geitmann*

Institut de Recherche en Biologie Végétale, Département de Sciences Biologiques, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H1X 2B2

While callose is a well-known permeability barrier and leak sealant in plant cells, it is largely unknown whether this cell wall polymer can also serve as a load-bearing structure. Since callose occurs in exceptionally large amounts in pollen, we assessed its role for resisting tension and compression stress in this cell. The effect of callose digestion in Solanum chacoense and Lilium orientalis pollen grains demonstrated that, depending on the species, this cell wall polymer represents a major stress-bearing structure at the aperture area of germinating grains. In the pollen tube, it is involved in cell wall resistance to circumferential tension stress, and despite its absence at the growing apex, callose is indirectly involved in the establishment of tension stress resistance in this area. To investigate whether or not callose is able to provide mechanical resistance against compression stress, we subjected pollen tubes to local deformation by microindentation. The data revealed that lowering the amount of callose resulted in reduced cellular stiffness and increased viscoelasticity, thus indicating clearly that callose is able to resist compression stress. Whether this function is relevant for pollen tube mechanics, however, is unclear, as stiffened growth medium caused a decrease in callose deposition. Together, our data provide clear evidence for the capacity of cell wall callose to resist tension and compression stress, thus demonstrating that this amorphous cell wall substance can have a mechanical role in growing plant cells.

1 This work was supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Fonds Québecois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies, and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation to A.G.

Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.104.050773.

* Corresponding author; e-mail anja.geitmann{at}umontreal.ca; fax 514–872–9406.

Received July 29, 2004; returned for revision October 29, 2004; accepted November 4, 2004.


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