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Pollen tube growth is affected by exogenous hormones and correlated with hormone changes in styles in Torenia fournieri L.

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Abstract

In the present report, we described the effects of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), zeatin (ZT), gibberellin (GA3), and abscisic acid (ABA) on in vitro pollen germination and pollen tube growth in Torenia fournieri L. The results showed that IAA and GA3 stimulated in vitro pollen tube growth, ABA inhibited pollen tube growth, and ZT had no significant effect on the process. The stimulating effect of exogenous IAA was particularly distinct, and led to synchronous growth of straighter and more slender pollen tubes compared with the controls. However, no significant changes were found in the germination of the treated pollen. The auxin efflux inhibitor, 10 μM 1-N-naphthylphthalamic acid (NPA), was also found to stimulate pollen tube growth. We measured the content of hormones (free IAA, ZT, GA3, and ABA) in the stigmas and styles before and after pollination. The hormone contents of stigmas measured 0.5 h after pollination (0.5 HAP) showed that ABA content decreased, whereas the content of IAA, ZT, or GA3 did not change significantly. The hormone level in pollinated styles (4 HAP) when pollen tubes had grown into the middle part of style was characterized by an increase in free IAA and GA3 and a decrease in ABA, which was in agreement with the results that IAA and GA3 promoted but ABA inhibited pollen tube growth in vitro. Furthermore, the change of IAA level in styles was most notable, which was accordant to the fact that auxin stimulated significantly pollen tube growth in vitro. Using immunoenzyme and immunogold labeling techniques and an anti-IAA monoclonal antibody, we confirmed that free IAA was present throughout style tissues, and distributed in the nucleus and cytoplasm of style cells. All these results suggested that hormones, especially IAA, play important roles in pollen tube growth of T. fournieri.

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Abbreviations

ABA:

Abscisic acid

EDAC:

1-Ethyl-3-(3-dimethyllaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride

ELISA:

Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay

GA3 :

Gibberellic acid

HAP:

Hours after pollination

IAA:

Indole-3-acetic acid

NPA:

1-N-naphthylphthalamic acid

SABC:

Streptayidin and biotinylated horseradish peroxidase complex

STT:

Stylar transmitting tissue

ZT:

Zeatin

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30521004) and the Key Grant Project of Chinese Ministry of Education (307018).

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  1. Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Plant Developmental Biology, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Juanzi Wu, Yuan Qin & Jie Zhao

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  1. Juanzi Wu
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  2. Yuan Qin
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  3. Jie Zhao
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Correspondence to Jie Zhao.

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Wu, J., Qin, Y. & Zhao, J. Pollen tube growth is affected by exogenous hormones and correlated with hormone changes in styles in Torenia fournieri L.. Plant Growth Regul 55, 137–148 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-008-9268-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-008-9268-5

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