A decade of pollen transcriptomics

Abstract

Key messageOverview of pollen transcriptome studies.Pollen development is driven by gene expression, and knowledge of the molecular events underlying this process has undergone a quantum leap in the last decade through studies of the transcriptome. Here, we outline historical evidence for male haploid gene expression and review the wealth of pollen transcriptome data now available. Knowledge of the transcriptional capacity of pollen has progressed from genetic studies to the direct analysis of RNA and from gene-by-gene studies to analyses on a genomic scale. Microarray and/or RNA-seq data can now be accessed for all phases and cell types of developing pollen encompassing 10 different angiosperms. These growing resources have accelerated research and will undoubtedly inspire new directions and the application of system-based research into the mechanisms that govern the development, function and evolution of angiosperm pollen.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00497-015-0261-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The Molecular Dialog between Flowering Plant Reproductive Partners Defined by SNP-Informed RNA-Sequencing

“…Despite this limitation, the ease of experimental setup and noninvasive nature of the technique argue for this approach, which does not require the extensive postharvesting purification steps required for alternative biochemical approaches such as TRAP-seq (Lin et al, 2014;Kim et al, 2015) or isolation of nuclei tagged in specific cell types (INTACT; Deal and Henikoff, 2011). Our analysis of Cvi x Col cross-pollinations revealed that ;8% of pollinated A. thaliana pistil RNA is derived from the pollen tube and we found strong correlations between our analysis and previous microarray analyses of the component cell types (microarray experiments recently reviewed in Rutley and Twell [2015]; Figure 2). Importantly, we identified hundreds of novel pollen tube-and pistil-expressed genes and showed that SNP-informed RNA-seq analysis of pollination can be used to identify promoter elements that drive gene expression in the pollen tube in response to growth through the pistil (Figure 4).…”

EXO70C2 Is a Key Regulatory Factor for Optimal Tip Growth of Pollen

“…Angiosperm species apart from Arabidopsis and rice are scarce (Rutley and Twell, 2015), a 526 mere comparison of these two species indicates that the EXO70C class is most probably 527 related to pollen tube development in all Angiosperms, suggesting conservation of the 528 EXO70C expression across monocots and dicots (Add. File 8 in Wei et al, 2010).…”

Bioinformatics resources for pollen

“…During the last decades, the number of studies focused on the haploid male gametophyte significantly increased, accompanied by the evolution and the spreading of molecular techniques (Feng et al 2013;Honys and Twell 2004;Rutley and Twell 2015;Twell 2011;Wang et al 2008;Wei et al 2011). Querying a reference scientific literature database such as PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.…”