Translational regulations in male fertilization in Arabidopsis thaliana
and tomato

PIs:

• Ravi Palanivelu, School of Plant Sciences, UArizona
• Cecile Bousquet-Antonelli, Institut des sciences biologiques, Laboratoire Génome et Développement des Plantes (UMR5096), Languedoc-Roussillon

Reproduction in angiosperms is crucial for seed and fruit production. The mature pollen grain (MPG) germinates and transports two sperm cells into the pistil in a pollen tube, where guided by various signals, it will discharge them into the ovule for fertilization and form the seed. The MPG is primarily a quiescent cell yet carries most of the tools necessary for germination and early stages of pollen tube growth. POLTRANS aims to identify the basis of this self-sufficiency by isolating the repertoire of mRNAs stored in the MPG and the atlas of their translational re-entry during the early stages of pollen tube growth in tomato. We will use two cultivars with opposite sensitivities to heat stress (HS) and conduct experiments under normal and HS conditions to identify the genes needed for higher yield under HS. POLTRANS brings together teams with complimentary expertise - a UA team specialised in tomato pollen and HS, and a CNRS team of experts in mRNA cytoplasmic regulations and HS.