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Arabidopsis phosphatidylinositol-phospholipase C2 (PLC2) is required for female gametogenesis and embryo development

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Abstract

Main conclusion

AtPLC2 is an essential gene in Arabidopsis, since it is required for female gametogenesis and embryo development. AtPLC2 might play a role in cell division during embryo-sac development and early embryogenesis.

Phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC) plays an important role in signal transduction during plant development and in the response to various biotic- and abiotic stresses. The Arabidopsis PI-PLC gene family is composed of nine members, named PLC1 to PLC9. Here, we report that PLC2 is involved in female gametophyte development and early embryogenesis. Using two Arabidopsis allelic T-DNA insertion lines with different phenotypic penetrations, we observed both female gametophytic defects and aberrant embryos. For the plc2-1 mutant (Ws background), no homozygous plants could be recovered in the offspring from self-pollinated plants. Nonetheless, plc2-1 hemizygous mutants are affected in female gametogenesis, showing embryo sacs arrested at early developmental stages. Allelic hemizygous plc2-2 mutant plants (Col-0 background) present reduced seed set and embryos arrested at the pre-globular stage with abnormal patterns of cell division. A low proportion (0.8%) of plc2-2 homozygous mutants was found to escape lethality and showed morphological defects and disrupted megagametogenesis. PLC2-promoter activity was observed during early megagametogenesis, and after fertilization in the embryo proper. Immunolocalization studies in early stage embryos revealed that PLC2 is restricted to the plasma membrane. Altogether, these results establish a role for PLC2 in both reproductive- and embryo development, presumably by controlling mitosis and/or the formation of cell-division planes.

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Abbreviations

IP3 :

Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate

PA:

Phosphatidic acid

PIP:

Phosphatidylinositol phosphate

PI-PLC:

Phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C

PIP2 :

Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate

Ws:

Wassilewskija

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Acknowledgements

We thank Sergio Batista for greenhouse assistance and Daniela Villamonte for technical assistance at the confocal microscope. This work was financially supported by UNMdP, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) to AML, LDF, GCP, JMD, PICT 1621 Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (ANPCyT) to AML and GCP, HHMI International Early Career grant 55007430 to GCP (http://www.hhmi.org/node/11337), Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO 867.15.020) to TM. R.T. acknowledges support from the Attraction and Insertion Program (PAI) from the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT) Grant Number [PAI82130047].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas IIB-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, 7600, Mar del Plata, Argentina

    Luciano M. Di Fino, Juan Martín D’Ambrosio, Lorenzo Lamattina, Gabriela C. Pagnussat & Ana M. Laxalt

  2. Facultad de Recursos Naturales Renovables, Universidad Arturo Prat, 111093, Iquique, Chile

    Ricardo Tejos

  3. Centro de Biología Molecular Vegetal, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, 7800003, Santiago, Chile

    Ricardo Tejos

  4. Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, Section Plant Cell Biology, University of Amsterdam, 1098 XH, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Ringo van Wijk & Teun Munnik

Authors
  1. Luciano M. Di Fino
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  2. Juan Martín D’Ambrosio
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  3. Ricardo Tejos
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  4. Ringo van Wijk
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  5. Lorenzo Lamattina
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  6. Teun Munnik
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  7. Gabriela C. Pagnussat
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  8. Ana M. Laxalt
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Correspondence to Gabriela C. Pagnussat or Ana M. Laxalt.

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Di Fino, L.M., D’Ambrosio, J.M., Tejos, R. et al. Arabidopsis phosphatidylinositol-phospholipase C2 (PLC2) is required for female gametogenesis and embryo development. Planta 245, 717–728 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-016-2634-z

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