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A defective pollen-pistil interaction contributes to hamper seed set in the parthenocarpic fruit tomato mutant

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Abstract

In the parthenocarpic fruit (pat) tomato mutant, parthenocarpy is associated with partial aberrations of stamens (shortness and carpelloidy) and ovules (defective integument growth) that contribute to impair seed set. However, these do not seem to be the only reasons for seed infertility because hand-pollination fails to restore seed set in ovaries where a fraction of the ovules are still morphologically normal. Therefore, it is conceivable that other unreported defects occur during the reproductive process in the mutant. In this research, we show that the mutation does not affect pollen or embryo sac development and viability, but generates sporophytic effects that reduce seed production and seed size. While pollen germination and stylar growth were normal in mutant pistils, fertilization does not take place because of abnormalities in the pollen tube-ovary interaction in this genotype. Inside the ovary of pat plants, pollen tubes appeared to be disorientated; they wandered about in the ovarian cavity and often lost their adherence to the placental surface. Interestingly, in pat ovaries fertilization was strongly impaired even in those ovules that appeared normal. It may be that apparently 'normal' ovules cannot guide pollen tubes to their micropyle in the altered pat ovary because adhesion molecules are not properly arrayed on a placenta that is already preparing for cell division or, alternatively, chemotropic signals in the pat ovary may be altered by the presence of aberrant ovules, which are not simply devoid of attractivity, but disrupt pollen tube guidance overall.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Tomato Genetic Resource Center for providing the L. esculentum cv. Severianin seed stock, Maria Herrero for critical reading of the manuscript and Pietro Mosconi and Leonello Bonifazi for expert technical assistance. This research was supported by project no. MM07158391, "Genes controlling gamete formation, development and function in higher plants" financed by M.I.U.R. (Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Agrobiologia e Agrochimica, Sezione di Genetica, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Via S.C. de Lellis, 01100 , Viterbo, Italy

    A. Mazzucato, I. Olimpieri & G. P. Soressi

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Siena, Via Mattioli 4, 53100 , Siena, Italy

    F. Ciampolini & M. Cresti

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  1. A. Mazzucato
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  2. I. Olimpieri
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  3. F. Ciampolini
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  4. M. Cresti
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  5. G. P. Soressi
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Correspondence to A. Mazzucato.

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Mazzucato, A., Olimpieri, I., Ciampolini, F. et al. A defective pollen-pistil interaction contributes to hamper seed set in the parthenocarpic fruit tomato mutant. Sex Plant Reprod 16, 157–164 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00497-003-0188-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00497-003-0188-2

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