REVIEW

Fern spore germination in response to environmental factors

  • Jinwei Suo 1,2 ,
  • Sixue Chen 3 ,
  • Qi Zhao 1 ,
  • Lei SHI , 4 ,
  • Shaojun Dai , 1
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  • 1. Development Center of Plant Germplasm Resources, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China
  • 2. Alkali Soil Natural Environmental Science Center, Northeast Forestry University, Key Laboratory of Saline-alkali Vegetation Ecology Restoration in Oil Field, Ministry of Education, Harbin 150040, China
  • 3. Department of Biology, Genetics Institute, Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA
  • 4. Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China

Received date: 06 Oct 2014

Accepted date: 15 Dec 2014

Published date: 14 Aug 2015

Copyright

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Abstract

Fern spore germination gives rise to the rhizoid and protonemal cell through asymmetric cell division, and then develops into a gametophyte. Spore germination is also a representative single-cell model for the investigation of nuclear polar movement, asymmetrical cell division, polarity establishment and rhizoid tip-growth. These processes are affected by various environmental factors, such as light, gravity, phytohormones, metal ions, and temperature. Here, we present a catalog of spore germination in response to different environmental factors. They are as follows: (1) Representative modes of light affecting spore germination from different fern species include red light-stimulated and far red light-inhibited spore germination, far red light-uninhibited spore germination, blue light-inhibited spore germination, and spore germination in the dark. The optimal light intensity and illumination time for spore germination are different among various fern species. Light response upon spore germination is initiated from the cell mitosis that regulated by phytochromes (PHYs) and cryptochromes (CRYs). AcPHY2, AcCRY3 and/or AcCRY4 are hypothesized to be involved in spore germination; (2) Gravity and calcium are crucial to early nuclear movement and polarity establishment of spores; (3) Gibberellin and antheridiogen can initiate and promote spore germination in many species, but abscisic acid, jasmonic acid, and ethylene pose only minor effects; (4) Spores can obtain the maximal germination rate in their favorable growth medium. Moreover, metal ions, pH, and spore density in the culture medium also affect spore germination; (5) Most fern spores germinate at 25°C, and an optimal CO2 concentration is necessary for spore germination of certain fern plants. These provide valuable information for understanding fern spore germination in response to environmental factors.

Cite this article

Jinwei Suo , Sixue Chen , Qi Zhao , Lei SHI , Shaojun Dai . Fern spore germination in response to environmental factors[J]. Frontiers in Biology, 2015 , 10(4) : 358 -376 . DOI: 10.1007/s11515-015-1342-6

Acknowledgements

The project was supported by grants from Specially-Appointed Professors (Oriental Scholars) for Shanghai’s Universities, and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31071194, 31270310).
Jinwei Suo, Sixue Chen, Qi Zhao, Lei Shi, and Shaojun Dai declare that they have no conflict of interest. This manuscript is a review article and does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.
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