AMOR, a love potion for plant fertilization
Scientists have succeeded in discovering AMOR, a sugar chain that increases the fertilization efficiency in plants. AMOR was found to be responsible for activating pollen tubes to lead to fertilization. Moreover, through the collaboration between biologists and chemists, they have synthesized a disaccharide, which exhibits the same properties as AMOR. This discovery is expected to lead to advances in research to improve plant fertilization efficiency as well as carbohydrate chemistry for plants.