Proteomics Advances in the Understanding of Pollen–Pistil Interactions

Abstract

The first key point to the successful pollination and fertilization in plants is the pollen-pistil interaction, referring to the cellular and molecular levels, which mainly involve the haploid pollen and the diploid pistil. The process is defined as “siphonogamy”, which starts from the capture of pollen by the epidermis of stigma and ends up with the fusion of sperm with egg. So far, the studies of the pollen-pistil interaction have been explicated around the self-compatibility and self-incompatibility (SI) process in different species from the molecular genetics and biochemistry to cellular and signal levels, especially the mechanism of SI system. Among them, numerous proteomics studies based on the advanced technologies from gel-system to gel-free system were conducted, focusing on the interaction, in order to uncover the mechanism of the process. The current review mainly focuses on the recent developments in proteomics of pollen-pistil interaction from two aspects: self-incompatible and compatible pollination. It might provide a comprehensive insight on the proteins that were involved in the regulation of pollen-pistil interaction.

A decade of pollen transcriptomics

“…In this review, we provide a brief survey of historical advances in understanding of gene expression in the male gametophyte and review the scale and diversity of the transcriptome data that have accumulated in the past decade. Some allied topics of importance including meiosis, pollen proteome studies, and the emerging role of small RNAs are not covered in detail, and the reader is referred to other recent and topical reviews (Le Trionnaire and Twell 2010 ; Twell 2011 ; Baroux et al 2011 ; Feng et al 2013 ; Dukowic-Schulze and Chen 2014 ; Fu and Yang 2014 ; Kawashima and Berger 2014 ).…”

In vitro pollination and fluorescence microscopy for characterization of gametophytic self-incompatibility of Coffea canephora Pierre ex A. Froehner

“…In compatible crosses, the pollen grains that adhere to the stigma germinate, forming a pollen tube that grows into the style. The pollen tube is an elongation of the cell of the pollen grain that grows chemotropically in the direction of the ovary carrying the vegetative and germinative nuclei (Fu and Yang (2014).…”

Self-(In)compatibility Systems: Target Traits for Crop-Production, Plant Breeding, and Biotechnology

“…Contributions to understanding SI from proteomics have been the subject of several reviews (Sankaranarayanan et al, 2013;Fu and Yang, 2014). Here, we highlight recent findings that point to future trends.…”