Europe PMC · 2026-03-19
Researchers identified how a plant hormone called jasmonate controls pollen viability and flower opening in cucumbers. They traced a precise molecular chain of events linking this hormone to male fertility, offering a new target for breeding male-sterile cucumber varieties used in hybrid seed production.
Cucumber mutants unable to produce jasmonate developed ruptured, nonviable pollen and petals that failed to open, confirming jasmonate is essential for male fertility in this species.
Spraying mutant plants with a synthetic form of jasmonate (MeJA) fully rescued pollen viability and restored normal flower opening, demonstrating the effect is hormone-specific and reversible.
A three-step regulatory cascade was mapped: the protein CsMYC2 activates two WRKY transcription factors, which in turn suppress a cell-wall remodeling gene (CsXTH33), enabling normal stamen and pollen development.
