Characterizing the dynamical accumulation of nuclear DNA in the sperm cells of Lycium barbarum L.

When sperm cells of the plant Lycium barbarum L. (L. barbarum) form in a style they begin to synthesize nuclear DNA (nDNA), which monotonically increases over time. To characterize the dynamics of nDNA accumulation, we present two new dynamical/statistical models. We applied these models to the accumulation of the nDNA content of sperm cells in L. barbarum between 16 to 32 hours after pollination in a style. A statistical analysis of experimental data, involving Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, allowed estimation of parameters of the models. We conclude that the model with no variation in the rate of nDNA accumulation adequately summarizes the data. This is the first work where the dynamics of nDNA accumulation has been quantitatively modeled and analyzed.