Molecular Genetics of Pollen-Stigma Interactions

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The process of cell-cell recognition represents a fundamental process which underlies many developmental events. The proposed research is designed to examine the recognition events which take place early in angiosperm fertilization using experimental methodologies of both molecular biology and genetics. Molecular methods will be used to characterize the S-locus gene family which is known to be involved in recognition reactions in self-incompatible plants and has recently been shown to exist in self-compatible plants as well. These genes will be characterized as to their structure and expression in the self-compatible crucifer Arabidopsis thaliana. Genetic methods will be used to obtain mutations which result in the interruption of the normal cell-cell recognition process. These mutants will be characterized by various means including experiments to determine if irradiated wild-type pollen can provide trans- acting substances sufficient to restore the mutant plants to fertility. The proposed research will characterize one family of genes known to be involved in cell-cell interactions and should also allow the identification of other genes which are required for this process. These genes can then be further characterized to build a more complete picture of the events involved in a cell-cell recognition reaction.