Ana Moutinho

University of Lisbon | UL · ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management

Scientific culture is an integral part of R&D systems. The Homo scientificus is built upon a formal and informal daily routine in which the media play a significant role. Science and journalism are becoming bridged worlds by means of their practices and professionals. The current challenge is to consolidate a running strategy of knowledge sharing.

In this paper we present an overview of available indicators and discuss new elements of analysis, qualitative and quantitative, drawn from the practices involved in the promotion of scientific culture. In this exercise, indicators for scientific culture and literacy were matched with a broad set of data coveting S&T, social and economical aspects....

Pollen tube growth and reorientation is a prerequisite for fertilization and seed formation. Here we report imaging of cAMP distribution in living pollen tubes microinjected with the protein kinase A-derived fluorosensor. Growing tubes revealed a uniform distribution of cAMP with a resting concentration of approximately 100-150 nM. Modulators of ad...

During the past few years pollen tubes grown in vitro became a popular model system for cell biology studies of signal transduction in plant cells. Here we report a simple and fairly inexpensive way of studying protein function by transiently perturbing expression of the target gene in living pollen tubes. The ability of antisense oligodeoxynucleot...

Plant fertilization is an essential process for seed production. One of the most interesting and important aspects is pollen tube growth from the stigma to the ovary. Understanding of the guidance mechanisms involved has been much debated, and important insights into the biochemical and physiological aspects of these events have been reported recen...

Pollen tube reorientation is a dynamic cellular event that is crucial for successful fertilization. We have shown previously that pollen tube orientation is regulated by cytosolic free calcium ([Ca2+]c). In this paper, we studied the activity of a Ca2+-dependent protein kinase during reorientation. The kinase activity was assayed in living cells by...

Many signals that modify plant cell growth and development initiate changes in cytoplasmic Ca2+. The subsequent movement of Ca2+ in the cytoplasm is thought to take place via waves of free Ca2+. These waves may be initiated at defined regions of the cell and movement requires release from a reticulated endoplasmi reticulum and the vacuole. The mech...

 Pollen tube growth is a vital process for angiosperm fertilisation and is dependent on the presence of a tip-focused gradient of cytosolic free calcium ([Ca2+]c). In order to clarify some of the target molecules which convey the Ca2+ signal information, we investigated calmodulin distribution during tube growth. Fluorescently labelled calmodulin w...