On The Cover: During maize sexual reproduction, pollen lands on the female silk, a multicellular receptor. It produces a sperm-containing tube that penetrates the silk (upper figure) and advances to the egg. The penetration requires the enzymatic action of a pollen coat xylanase on the silk wall. With elimination of the xylanase by an antisense technique, the pollen tube cannot penetrate but rather grows along the silk (lower figure). For details see the article by Suen and Huang, pages 625–636.

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