Molecular Genetics of Pollen-Stigma Interactions

细胞-细胞识别过程是许多发育事件的基础过程。这项拟议的研究旨在利用分子生物学和遗传学的实验方法来检查被子植物受精早期发生的识别事件。S基因家族参与了自交不亲和植物的识别反应，最近发现它也存在于自交不亲和植物中。这些基因的特征是它们在自交亲和的十字花科植物拟南芥中的结构和表达。基因方法将被用来获得导致正常细胞-细胞识别过程中断的突变。这些突变体将通过各种手段进行表征，包括确定辐照的野生型花粉是否可以提供足以使突变植物恢复生育能力的反式作用物质的实验。这项拟议的研究将确定一个已知参与细胞间相互作用的基因家族的特征，并应该能够识别这一过程所需的其他基因。然后，可以进一步确定这些基因的特征，以建立参与细胞-细胞识别反应的事件的更完整的图景。

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.