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JXB Advance Access originally published online on May 19, 2009
Journal of Experimental Botany 2009 60(9):2737-2749; doi:10.1093/jxb/erp143
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© 2009 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This paper is available online free of all access charges (see http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/open_access.html for further details)

RESEARCH PAPER

Overexpression of PwTUA1, a pollen-specific tubulin gene, increases pollen tube elongation by altering the distribution of {alpha}-tubulin and promoting vesicle transport

YanLi Yu1, YanZe Li1, LingLi Li2, JinXing Lin3, Chengchao Zheng1,* and LingYun Zhang2,*

1State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, College of Life Sciences, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian, Shandong 271018, PR China
2Key Laboratory of Forest Silviculture and Conservation of the Ministry of Education, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, PR China
3Key Laboratory of Photosynthesis and Molecular Environmental Physiology Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, PR China

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: lyzhang73{at}sohu.com or cczheng{at}sdau.edu.cn

Tubulin genes are intimately associated with cell division and cell elongation, which are central to plant secondary cell wall development. However, their roles in pollen tube polar growth remain elusive. Here, a TUA1 gene from Picea wilsonii, which is specifically expressed in pollen, was isolated. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed that the amount of PwTUA1 transcript varied at each stage of growth of the pollen tube and was induced by calcium ions and boron. Transient expression analysis in P. wilsonii pollen indicated that PwTUA1 improved pollen germination and pollen tube growth. The pollen of transgenic Arabidopsis overexpressing PwTUA1 also showed a higher percentage of germination and faster growth than wild-type plants not only in optimal germination medium, but also in medium supplemented with elevated levels of exogenous calcium ions or boron. Immunofluorescence and electron microscopy showed {alpha}-tubulin to be enriched and more vesicles accumulated in the apex region in germinating transgenic Arabidopsis pollen compared with wild-type plants. These results demonstrate that PwTUA1 up-regulated by calcium ions and boron contributes to pollen tube elongation by altering the distribution of {alpha}-tubulin and regulating the deposition of pollen cell wall components during the process of tube growth. The possible role of PwTUA1 in microtubule dynamics and organization was discussed.

Key words: Microtubules, Picea wilsonii, pollen tube, PwTUA1, transgenic Arabidopsis, {alpha}-tubulin

Received 6 January 2009; Revised 31 March 2009 Accepted 1 April 2009


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