Sporopollenin exhibiting colloidal organization in spore walls
作者:
MargaretE. Collinson,
AlanR. Hemsley,
WilsonA. Taylor,
期刊:
Grana
(Taylor Available online 1993)
卷期:
Volume 32,
issue sup1
页码: 31-39
ISSN:0017-3134
年代: 1993
DOI:10.1080/00173139309427449
出版商: Taylor & Francis Group
数据来源: Taylor
摘要:
Certain megaspores from the genusSelaginella(Lycophyta) and similar fossil genera of Cretaceous and Tertiary age are known to demonstrate a remarkable, iridescent appearance. Recent work on the spore wall ultrastructure shows that this iridescence is produced by a complex, ordered, particulate organization which is analogous to that of iridescent virus aggregates, precious opal and other synthetic materials. Our results suggest that this effect is produced by the accumulation of the spore wall material in the form of a monodisperse colloidal crystal. Colloidal organizations can also account for adjacent non-iridescent wall layers, the transition zones between these and the colloidal crystal and for spore walls with no hint of regular organization. The brief time in which the distinctive ordered exine ultrastructure develops and its occurrence around non-viable spore protoplasts add weight to the hypothesis that the exine is largely self-assembling. This new model of spore wall formation may well have wider implications in terms of current concepts of exine organization and development.
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