{"id":8277,"date":"2020-06-15T18:04:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T15:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/researchers-discover-whats-behind-natures-perhaps-largest-erection-which-is-not-that-big\/"},"modified":"2020-06-15T18:04:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-15T15:04:00","slug":"researchers-discover-whats-behind-natures-perhaps-largest-erection-which-is-not-that-big","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/researchers-discover-whats-behind-natures-perhaps-largest-erection-which-is-not-that-big\/","title":{"rendered":"#Researchers discover what’s behind nature’s perhaps largest erection, which is not that big"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Researchers discover what’s behind nature’s perhaps largest erection, which is not that big<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\n Microscopic photo of a normal pollentube and a pollentube with essential growth-genes turned off. The black line is a scale for 0.1 mm. Credit: University of Copenhagen
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In the plant kingdom, the sexual organ of a male pollen grain grows up to a thousand times its own length as it sniffs its way forth to a female egg cell to deliver its two sperm cells. Now researchers at the University of Copenhagen have advanced the understanding of what makes pollen ‘penises,’ called pollen tubes, grow. The newfound knowledge may prove valuable to understanding human nerve cells.<\/p>\n

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There’s no need for Viagra among ‘males’ in the plant kingdom. When a male pollen grain, transferred by wind or insects, reaches the female part of a flower, a long, sperm cell-containing tube grows out of it. This tube, known as a pollen tube, can extend several thousand times its own length.<\/p>\n

Exactly how this erection works has been unclear for more than 100 years. But now, researchers at the Department of Plant and Environmental Science<\/a>s at the University of Copenhagen have learned what drives pollen tube growth: an electrical circuit, powered by microscopic pumps known as ‘proton pumps.’ The study has just been published in Nature Communications<\/i>.
\n“We were taken aback by how extremely advanced the plant’s fertilization mechanism really is. From textbooks, we understand that pollen tubes grow and push forth by continually building additional floors upon the cell skeleton, like a growing scaffold. However, very little was known about the underlying mechanisms of this enormous growth. Our work has made the world a bit wiser,” says Professor Michael Broberg Palmgren from the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences.
\nSniffing its way, up to three millimeters a day<\/b>
\nLike a sniffer dog, the pollen tube smells its way to an egg cell buried within the female structure, that will eventually become a seed. Tube growth occurs as it continuously extends its tip, a process called ‘tip growth.’ Pollen tube growth reached roughly three millimeters a day in the thale cress, a weed plant, used in the study.
\n“The pollen tube is not a rigid tube. It is dynamic and can redirect as it searches for an egg,” explains Michael Broberg Palmgren.<\/p>\n

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