Plant Physiol, November 2002, Vol. 130, pp. 1190-1200

Dynamic 1-Aminocyclopropane-1-Carboxylate-Synthase and -Oxidase Transcript Accumulation Patterns during Pollen Tube Growth in Tobacco Styles¹

Department of Experimental Botany, University of Nijmegen, Toernooiveld 1, 6525 ED Nijmegen, The Netherlands (K.W., C.M.); and Bayer Cropscience NV, Jozef Plateaustraat 22, 9000 Gent, Belgium (M.P., M.C., C.M.)

In flowering plants, pollination of the stigma sets off a cascade of responses in the distal flower organs. Ethylene and its biosynthetic precursor 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) play an important role in regulating these responses. Because exogenous application of ethylene or ACC does not invoke the full postpollination syndrome, the pollination signal probably consists of a more complex set of stimuli. We set out to study how and when the pollination signal moves through the style of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) by analyzing the expression patterns of pistil-expressed ACC-synthase and -oxidase genes. Results from this analysis showed that pollination induces high ACC-oxidase transcript levels in all cells of the transmitting tissue. ACC-synthase mRNA accumulated only in a subset of transmitting tract cells and to lower levels as compared with ACC-oxidase. More significantly, we found that although ACC-oxidase transcripts accumulate to uniform high levels, the ACC-synthase transcripts accumulate in a wave-like pattern in which the peak coincides with the front of the ingrowing pollen tube tips. This wave of ACC-synthase expression can also be induced by incongruous pollination and (partially) by wounding. This indicates that wounding-like features of pollen tube invasion might be part of the stimuli evoking the postpollination response and that these stimuli are interpreted differently by the regulatory mechanisms of the ACC-synthase and -oxidase genes.