Three MYB Transcription Factors Control Pollen Tube Differentiation Required for Sperm Release
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ABSTRACT: Flowering plants have immotile sperm that develop within pollen and must be carried to female gametes by a pollen tube. The pollen tube engages in molecular interactions with several cell types within the pistil and these interactions are essential for successful fertilization. We identified a group of three closely related pollen tube-expressed MYB transcription factors (MYB97, MYB101, MYB120), which are required for proper interaction of the pollen tube with the female gametophyte. These transcription factors are transcriptionally induced during growth in the pistil. They regulate a transcriptional network leading to proper differentiation and maturation of the pollen tube, promoting proper pollen tube-ovule interactions resulting in sperm release and double fertilization. We used microarrays to discover genes regulated by the transcription factors MYB97, MYB101 and MYB120 in pollen tubes growing through the pistil at 8 hours after pollination. Pistils were collected from ms1 (Male Sterile 1) pistils that were unpollinated, or pollinated with either wild type (Col-0) pollen or myb triple mutant (myb97-1, myb101-4, myb120-3) pollen for 8 hours. We sought to examine transcriptional changes that were taking place in pollen tubes before they reached ovules in wild type pollen tubes, and what portion of this transcriptional regulation was due to MYB97, MYB101 and MYB120. Analysis of growth in the pistil allows discovery of transcriptional changes taking place during pollen tube growth in its native environment, as opposed to mature pollen or in vitro grown pollen, which are essentially naive conditions, as neither have interacted with the pistil environment and any signalling factors found therein.
ORGANISM(S): Arabidopsis thaliana
SUBMITTER: Alexander Leydon
PROVIDER: E-GEOD-44405 | biostudies-arrayexpress |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress
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