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JXB Advance Access first published online on May 11, 2009
This version published online on May 19, 2009
Journal of Experimental Botany, doi:10.1093/jxb/erp148
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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

Pollen grain development is compromised in Arabidopsis agp6 agp11 null mutants

Sílvia Coimbra1,*, Mário Costa1, Brian Jones2, Marta Adelina Mendes1 and Luís Gustavo Pereira1

1Departamento de Botânica, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Edifício FC4 Rua do Campo Alegre 4169-007 Porto, Portugal
2School of Botany, University of Melbourne, Australia

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: scoimbra{at}fc.up.pt

Arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs) are structurally complex plasma membrane and cell wall proteoglycans that are implicated in diverse developmental processes, including plant sexual reproduction. Male gametogenesis (pollen grain development) is fundamental to plant sexual reproduction. The role of two abundant, pollen-specific AGPs, AGP6, and AGP11, have been investigated here. The pollen specificity of these proteoglycans suggested that they are integral to pollen biogenesis and their strong sequence homology indicated a potential for overlapping function. Indeed, single gene transposon insertion knockouts for both AGPs showed no discernible phenotype. However, in plants homozygous for one of the insertions and heterozygous for the other, in homozygous double mutants, and in RNAi and amiRNA transgenic plants that were down-regulated for both genes, many pollen grains failed to develop normally, leading to their collapse. The microscopic observations of these aborted pollen grains showed a condensed cytoplasm, membrane blebbing and the presence of small lytic vacuoles. Later in development, the generative cells that arise from mitotic divisions were not seen to go into the second mitosis. Anther wall development, the establishment of the endothecium thickenings, the opening of the stomium, and the deposition of the pollen coat were all normal in the knockout and knockdown lines. Our data provide strong evidence that these two proteoglycans have overlapping and important functions in gametophytic pollen grain development.

Key words: Arabidopsis, arabinogalactan proteins, knockouts, pollen development

This paper has been versioned to become open access.

Received 21 January 2009; Revised 30 March 2009 Accepted 9 April 2009


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