Understanding Growth Of Pollen Tube In Video

Pollen tubes are tube-like structures that are an important part of the sexual reproductive cycle in plants. They deliver sperm to the ovary of the plant where fertilization occurs. The growth of the pollen tube is the result of complex biochemical interactions in the cytoplasm (protein-protein, ions, and cellular bodies) that lead to shape deformation. Current tube growth models are focused on capturing these internal dynamics and using them to show changes in tube length/area/volume. The complex nature of these models makes it difficult for them to be used to verify tube shapes seen in experimental videos. This chapter presents a method of verifying the shape of growing pollen tubes obtained from experimental videos using video bioinformatics techniques. The proposed method is based on a simplification of the underlying internal biological processes and their impact on cell morphogenesis. Experiments are conducted using videos of growing pollen tubes to show the model's performance.