Removing one gene makes tomato pollen heat-tough
Almasaud RA, Yimga Ouonkap SV, Ingram J, Oseguera Y, Alosman MA
Climate Adaptation
If your tomato plants stop setting fruit during a summer heat wave, the real culprit may be pollen tubes falling apart in the heat, and this discovery points toward breeding tomatoes that keep fruiting when it's hot.
When pollen lands and starts growing a tiny tube to reach the plant's eggs, heat can cause that tube to fall apart, which is a big reason tomato plants struggle to set fruit during hot weather. Researchers discovered that a signaling protein called RALF1 normally helps build the tube's wall, but under heat stress it backfires, and tomato plants lacking this one protein grow sturdier, heat-resistant pollen tubes. This gives breeders a concrete target for developing tomato varieties that can keep producing fruit even as summers get hotter.
Key Findings
Maintaining pollen tube cellular integrity during germination and growth is the key trait separating heat-sensitive from heat-tolerant tomato cultivars
Loss-of-function of SlRALF1, one of four pollen-expressed RALF signaling peptides in tomato, enhances pollen thermotolerance
Heat stress disrupts RALF signaling needed to maintain proper pectin distribution in the pollen tube cell wall, compromising its structural integrity
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists found that heat stress damages the protective wall of pollen tubes, the structures that carry sperm to fertilize plant eggs, and that disabling one particular signaling protein in tomato pollen actually helps it survive the heat.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Pollen tube integrity is critical for thermotolerance in tomato and is enhanced by loss of SlRALF1.
Reproductive success of angiosperms depends on the ability of pollen to build a highly polarized cellular extension (the pollen tube) that delivers sperm to female gametes for fertilization. This p...
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