SPLS Seminar: Generation of heat-tolerant pollen tubes in Arabidopsis thaliana

Abstract: Increasing global temperatures negatively affects crop yield by inhibiting the production of seeds and/or fruits. Creating and growing crop plants that can overcome heat stress and set seed and fruit at higher temperatures is advantageous to growers. A key aspect of fruit and seed yield is delivery of sperm cells to the ovules by the pollen tube (PT), a process that is highly susceptible to heat stress (HS). Tomato is an economically important crop and a genetic model with genome-sequenced thermosensitive and thermotolerant varieties. Our lab found that in tomato PTs, steady-state levels of callose deposition in cell walls are higher in thermotolerant varieties and remained higher upon HS. Here we show that overexpressing a tomato signaling protein, which positively controls callose levels, in Arabidopsis thaliana PTs rendered them thermotolerant. Future research will aim to uncover the role of this signaling pathway and callose deposition in PT cell walls under HS conditions.