TICKET attracts pollen tubes and mediates reproductive isolation between relative species in Brassicaceae

• Published in: Science China. Life sciences Vol. 62; no. 11; pp. 1413 - 1419
• Main Authors: Meng, Jiang-Guo, Zhang, Meng-Xia, Yang, Wei-Cai, Li, Hong-Ju
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Science China Press 01.11.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Arabidopsis - genetics; Arabidopsis - metabolism; Arabidopsis Proteins - genetics; Arabidopsis Proteins - metabolism; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Brassicaceae; Capsella - genetics; Capsella - metabolism; Cover Article; Fertilization; Flowering; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Gene Knockout Techniques; Life Sciences; Ovule - metabolism; Peptides - metabolism; Pollen Tube - metabolism; Pollen tubes; Reproductive Isolation; Signal Transduction; Species; reproductive isolation; pollen tube attraction; peptide attractant
• ISSN: 1674-7305; 1869-1889
• DOI: 10.1007/s11427-019-9833-3

In flowering plants, pollen tubes are attracted to the ovule by secreted peptides to release the sperm cells for double fertilization. This process is species-specific and acts as an important stage of reproductive isolation between species. Here we identified a cysteine-rich peptide TICKET2 in Arabidopsis thaliana and its orthologs in Arabidopsis lyrata and Capsella rebella that can attract the conspecific pollen tubes, but not the pollen tubes of relative species in Brassicaceae. Genetic knockout of the AtTICKET subclade compromised the pollen tube attraction efficiency. This study identified a new pollen tube attracting signal and shed light on the molecular basis of reproductive isolation.