This study investigated the role of lectins in overcoming self-incompatibility in intraspecific and interspecific crosses in Linum perenne. Previous research identified lectins as potentially involved in pollen recognition signaling. Lectins were extracted and purified from gynoecium and androecium tissues of long-styled and short-styled L. perenne flowers. Stigmas treated with lectins from different morphs were able to fully overcome self-incompatibility, allowing compatible pollen tube growth. Interspecific crosses only formed seeds after treatment with androecium lectins, indicating lectins play a role in signaling pathways for pollen tube recognition and seed formation in intra- and interspecific
This study investigated the role of lectins in overcoming self-incompatibility in intraspecific and interspecific crosses in Linum perenne. Previous research identified lectins as potentially involved in pollen recognition signaling. Lectins were extracted and purified from gynoecium and androecium tissues of long-styled and short-styled L. perenne flowers. Stigmas treated with lectins from different morphs were able to fully overcome self-incompatibility, allowing compatible pollen tube growth. Interspecific crosses only formed seeds after treatment with androecium lectins, indicating lectins play a role in signaling pathways for pollen tube recognition and seed formation in intra- and interspecific
This study investigated the role of lectins in overcoming self-incompatibility in intraspecific and interspecific crosses in Linum perenne. Previous research identified lectins as potentially involved in pollen recognition signaling. Lectins were extracted and purified from gynoecium and androecium tissues of long-styled and short-styled L. perenne flowers. Stigmas treated with lectins from different morphs were able to fully overcome self-incompatibility, allowing compatible pollen tube growth. Interspecific crosses only formed seeds after treatment with androecium lectins, indicating lectins play a role in signaling pathways for pollen tube recognition and seed formation in intra- and interspecific
THE OVERCOMING OF SELF-INCOMPATIBILITY BY ANDROECIUM AND
GYNOECIUM LECTINS OF LINUM PERENNE. L. IN INTRASPECIFIC AND
INTERSPECIFIC CROSSES Hanna Levchuk 1, 2, Victor Lyakh1, Maria Manuela Ribeiro Costa2 1 Chair of Landscape Industry and Plant Genetics, Department of Biology, Zaporizhzhya National University, Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine 2 BioSystems & Integrative Sciences Institute (BioISI), Plant Functional Biology Center, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal anna.levchuck@yandex.ua
Self-incompatibility is one of the major mechanisms by which flowering plants
prevent inbreeding. Most heterostyled species are self-incompatible and this is likely an extra mechanism to promote outcrossing. Heterostyly is common in Linum genus. This kind of flower dimorphism has long interested many researchers, including Darwin, which has studied Linum perenne L., amongst others. However, a molecular mechanism that is responsible for self-incompatibility in this species has not been characterized. In addition, the mechanisms of self-incompatibility among heterostyled species are similar to mechanisms of incompatibility in interspecific crosses. Our previous data with different Linum species has pointed out lectins as being potentially involved in the signalling mechanism responsible for pollen recognition. Therefore, we have extracted and purified glucose and galactose-specific lectins (soluble, membrane and cell wall) from gynoecium and from androecium of longstyled and short-styled flowers. Both short-styled stigmas of L. perenne L. and long styled stigmas of L. narbonense L., L. squamulosum L. and L. tenue L. (before pollination) were treated with solutions containing purified lectins from androecium or from gynoecium of short-styled flowers or from long-styled flowers. Stigmas were pollinated with pollen from short -styled flowers of L. perenne L. Pollen tube growth was monitored using aniline blue. In a self-incompatible cross (intraspecific cross) the pollen germinates but the pollen tube growth is inhibited in the stigma, whereas in a compatible cross the pollen tube reaches the ovary within two hours after pollination. Stigmas treated with both membrane and cell wall galactose-specific lectins from either pistils or anthers of a different flower morphs are able to fully overcome self-incompatibility, thus the pollen tube grows normally and is able to reach the ovary, but the seeds were formed only after the treatment by gynoecium lectins. In interspecific crosses (L. narbonense (LS) L. perenne (SS), L. squamulosum (LS) L. perenne (SS) and L. tenue (LS) L. perenne (SS)) the seeds were formed only after the treatment by androecium lectins. Our results indicate that lectins might have a role in signalling pathways involved in pollen tube recognition and formed seeds in intraspecific and interspecific crosses between Linum species. Acknowledgments: We would like to thank the Portuguese Bank of Plant Germplasm (BPGV) in Braga, Portugal for valuable technical assistance. This work was supported in part by Erasmus Mundus Action 2 Project ELECTRA: Enhancing Learning in ENPI Countries through Clean (grant ELEC1300501)