Sex in plants requires thrust
Tuesday, August 21, 2018 - 05:31
in Biology & Nature
In a paper to be published in the September 2018 issue of TECHNOLOGY, the thrust produced by the microscopic organ delivering sperm cells in plants has now been measured using microfluidic technology. A team of nano and microsystems engineers and plant biologists at the University of Montreal (now known as Université de Montréal), McGill University and Concordia University devised a microchip that enabled the researchers to measure how much force the sperm delivery tools used by plants exert when negotiating the female flower tissues to accomplish fertilization.