Speed dating, rejection, and finding the perfect mate: advice from flowering plants

• Molecular exchanges between male and female gametophytes optimize fertilization.
• Cysteine-rich peptides are the predominant mode of exchange.
• Multiple molecular exchanges are species preferential.
• Signaling cross-talk ensures that each ovule receives a single pollen tube.

Angiosperm pollen tubes extend through pistil tissue to deliver a pair of immotile sperm cells to female gametes for double fertilization. The extended journey of the pollen tube requires extensive cell:cell interactions that guide the pollen tube to its destination and instruct it to stop growing and burst. Once sperm cells are released the molecular exchanges between male and female continue, resulting in sperm activation and gamete fusion. Finally, there is evidence that gamete fusion can feed back on the pollen tube attraction mechanism so that additional pollen tubes can be attracted only if the first sperm cells fail to fertilize. We review progress toward defining the molecules mediating each of these exchanges and describe how small cysteine-rich peptides are a major mode of cellular communication.