Begcy, Kevin and Mondragon-Palomino, Mariana and Zhou, Liang-Zi and Seitz, Patricia-Lena and Marton, Mihaela-Luiza and Dresselhaus, Thomas (2024) Maize stigmas react differently to self- and cross-pollination and fungal invasion. PLANT PHYSIOLOGY, 196 (4). pp. 3071-3090. ISSN 0032-0889, 1532-2548
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During sexual reproduction in flowering plants, tip-growing pollen tubes travel from the stigma inside the maternal tissues of the pistil toward ovules. In maize (Zea mays L.), the stigma is highly elongated, forming thread-like strands known as silks. Only compatible pollen tubes successfully penetrate and grow through the transmitting tract of the silk to reach the ovules. Like pollen, fungal spores germinate at the surface of silks and generate tube-like structures (hyphae) penetrating silk tissue. To elucidate commonalities and differences between silk responses to these distinctive invading cells, we compared growth behavior of the various invaders as well as the silk transcriptome after self-pollination, cross-pollination, and infection using 2 different fungi. We report that self-pollination triggers mainly senescence genes, whereas incompatible pollen from Tripsacum dactyloides leads to downregulation of rehydration, microtubule, and cell wall-related genes, explaining the slower pollen tube growth and arrest. Invasion by the ascomycete Fusarium graminearum triggers numerous defense responses including the activation of monolignol biosynthesis and NAC as well as WRKY transcription factor genes, whereas responses to the basidiomycete Ustilago maydis are generally much weaker. We present evidence that incompatible pollination and fungal infection trigger transcriptional reprograming of maize silks cell wall. Pathogen invasion also activates the phytoalexin biosynthesis pathway. Maize stigmas (silks) respond differently to different biotic invaders, including self- and cross-pollen tubes as well as hyphae of 2 different fungal species.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | POLLEN-TUBE GROWTH; HEAT-STRESS; GENE; FERTILIZATION; BIOSYNTHESIS; GUIDANCE; GENOME; MECHANISMS; INFECTION; DEFENSES |
| Subjects: | 500 Science > 570 Life sciences 500 Science > 580 Botanical sciences |
| Divisions: | Biology, Preclinical Medicine > Institut für Pflanzenwissenschaften |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 09 Dec 2025 10:19 |
| Last Modified: | 09 Dec 2025 10:19 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/64340 |
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