Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Exposure to higher-than-optimal temperatures reduces crop yield and quality, mainly due to sensitivity of developing pollen grains. The mechanisms maintaining high pollen quality under heat-stress conditions are poorly understood. Our recently published data indicate high heat-stress-induced expression of ethylene-responsive genes in tomato pollen, indicating ethylene involvement in the pollen heat-stress response. Here we elucidated ethylene's involvement in pollen heat-stress response and thermotolerance by assessing the effects of interfering with the ethylene signalling pathway and altering ethylene levels on tomato pollen functioning under heat stress. METHODOLOGY: Plants of the ethylene-insensitive mutant Never ripe (Nr)-defective in an ethylene response sensor (ERS)-like ethylene receptor-and the corresponding wild type were exposed to control or heat-stress growing conditions, and pollen quality was determined. Starch and carbohydrates were measured in isolated pollen grains from these plants. The effect of pretreating cv. Micro-Tom tomato plants, prior to heat-stress exposure, with an ethylene releaser or inhibitor of ethylene biosynthesis on pollen quality was assessed. PRINCIPAL RESULTS: Never ripe pollen grains exhibited higher heat-stress sensitivity, manifested by a significant reduction in the total number of pollen grains, reduction in the number of viable pollen and elevation of the number of non-viable pollen, compared with wild-type plants. Mature Nr pollen grains accumulated only 40 % of the sucrose level accumulated by the wild type. Pretreatment of tomato plants with an ethylene releaser increased pollen quality under heat stress, with an over 5-fold increase in the number of germinating pollen grains per flower. Pretreatment with an ethylene biosynthesis inhibitor reduced the number of germinating pollen grains following heat-stress exposure over 5-fold compared with non-treated controls. CONCLUSIONS: Ethylene plays a significant role in tomato pollen thermotolerance. Interfering with the ethylene signalling pathway or reducing ethylene levels increased tomato pollen sensitivity to heat stress, whereas increasing ethylene levels prior to heat-stress exposure increased pollen quality.
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Claims 6
Claim · model-written summary
Never ripe pollen had fewer total grains under heat stress than wild type.
- Taxon
- tomato
Solanum lycopersicumt0 - Material
- Never ripee0
- Treatment
- heat-stresse0
- Outcome
- total number of pollen grainse0
- Direction
- reductione0
- Comparator
- wild-type plantse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Never ripe pollen grains exhibited higher heat-stress sensitivity, manifested by a significant reduction in the total number of pollen grains, reduction in the number of viable pollen and elevation of the number of non-viable pollen, compared with wild-type plants”
t0“tomato”
Claim · model-written summary
Never ripe pollen had fewer viable grains under heat stress.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Material
- Never ripee0
- Treatment
- heat-stresse0
- Outcome
- number of viable pollene0
- Direction
- reductione0
- Comparator
- wild-type plantse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Never ripe pollen grains exhibited higher heat-stress sensitivity, manifested by a significant reduction in the total number of pollen grains, reduction in the number of viable pollen and elevation of the number of non-viable pollen, compared with wild-type plants”
t0“tomato”
Claim · model-written summary
Never ripe pollen had more nonviable grains under heat stress.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Material
- Never ripee0
- Treatment
- heat-stresse0
- Outcome
- number of non-viable pollene0
- Direction
- elevatione0
- Comparator
- wild-type plantse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Never ripe pollen grains exhibited higher heat-stress sensitivity, manifested by a significant reduction in the total number of pollen grains, reduction in the number of viable pollen and elevation of the number of non-viable pollen, compared with wild-type plants”
t0“tomato”
Claim · model-written summary
Mature Nr pollen sucrose was 40% of wild type.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Material
- Nre0
- Outcome
- sucrose levele0
- Direction
- onlye0
- Value
- 40 %e0
- Comparator
- wild typee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Mature Nr pollen grains accumulated only 40 % of the sucrose level accumulated by the wild type”
t0“tomato”
Claim · model-written summary
Ethylene releaser pretreatment increased germinating pollen per flower more than fivefold under heat stress.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicume0
- Treatment
- Pretreatment of tomato plants with an ethylene releasere0
- Outcome
- number of germinating pollen grains per flowere0
- Direction
- increasee0
- Value
- over 5-folde0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Pretreatment of tomato plants with an ethylene releaser increased pollen quality under heat stress, with an over 5-fold increase in the number of germinating pollen grains per flower”
Claim · model-written summary
Ethylene biosynthesis inhibitor pretreatment reduced germinating pollen more than fivefold under heat stress.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- Pretreatment with an ethylene biosynthesis inhibitore0
- Outcome
- number of germinating pollen grainse0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Value
- over 5-folde0
- Comparator
- non-treated controlse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Pretreatment with an ethylene biosynthesis inhibitor reduced the number of germinating pollen grains following heat-stress exposure over 5-fold compared with non-treated controls”
t0“tomato”
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