Pollen fertility and the role of ROS and Ca signaling in heat stress tolerance
Authors: Miller Gad , Harper Jeffrey F. 
Published: January 2022

The long-term goal of this research is to understand how pollen cope with stress, and identify genes that can be manipulated in crop plants to improve reproductive success during heat stress. The specific aims were to: 1) Compare heat stress dependent changes in gene expression between wild type pollen, and mutants in which pollen are heat sensitive (cngc16) or heat tolerant (apx2-1). 2) Compare cngc16 and apx2 mutants for differences in heat-stress triggered changes in ROS, cNMP, and Ca²⁺ transients. 3) Expand a mutant screen for pollen with increased or decreased thermo-tolerance. These aims were designed to provide novel and fundamental advances to our understanding of stress tolerance in pollen reproductive development, and enable research aimed at improving crop plants to be more productive under conditions of heat stress. Background: Each year crop yields are severely impacted by a variety of stress conditions, including heat, cold, drought, hypoxia, and salt. Reproductive development in flowering plants is highly sensitive to hot or cold temperatures, with even a single hot day or cold night sometimes being fatal to reproductive success. In many plants, pollen tube development and fertilization is often the weakest link. Current speculation about global climate change is that most agricultural regions will experience more extreme environmental fluctuations. With the human food supply largely dependent on seeds, it is critical that we consider ways to improve stress tolerance during fertilization. The heat stress response (HSR) has been intensively studied in vegetative tissues, but is poorly understood during reproductive development. A general paradigm is that HS is accompanied by increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and induction of ROS-scavenging enzymes to protect cells from excess oxidative damage. The activation of the HSR has been linked to cytosolic Ca²⁺ signals, and transcriptional and translational responses, including the increased expression of heat shock proteins (HSPs) and antioxidative pathways. The focus of the proposed research was on two mutations, which have been discovered in a collaboration between the Harper and Miller labs, that either increase or decrease reproductive stress tolerance in a model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana (i.e., cngc16--cyclic nucleotide gated channel 16, apx2-1--ascorbate peroxidase 2,). Major conclusions, solutions, achievements. Using RNA-seq technology, the expression profiles of cngc16 and apx2 pollen grains were independently compared to wild type under favourable conditions and following HS. In comparison to a wild type HSR, there were 2,776 differences in the transcriptome response in cngc16 pollen, consistent with a model in which this heat-sensitive mutant fails to enact or maintain a normal wild-type HSR. In a comparison with apx2 pollen, there were 900 differences in the HSR. Some portion of these 900 differences might contribute to an improved HSR in apx2 pollen. Twenty-seven and 42 transcription factor changes, in cngc16 and apx2-1, respectively, were identified that could provide unique contributions to a pollen HSR. While we found that the functional HS-dependent reprogramming of the pollen transcriptome requires specific activity of CNGC16, we identified in apx2 specific activation of flavonol-biosynthesis pathway and auxin signalling that support a role in pollen thermotolerance. Results from this study have identified metabolic pathways and candidate genes of potential use in improving HS tolerance in pollen. Additionally, we developed new FACS-based methodology that can quantify the stress response for individual pollen in a high-throughput fashion. This technology is being adapted for biological screening of crop plant’s pollen to identify novel thermotolerance traits. Implications, both scientific and agricultural. This study has provided a reference data on the pollen HSR from a model plant, and supports a model that the HSR in pollen has many differences compared to vegetative cells. This provides an important foundation for understanding and improving the pollen HSR, and therefor contributes to the long-term goal of improving productivity in crop plants subjected to temperature stress conditions. A specific hypothesis that has emerged from this study is that pollen thermotolerance can be improved by increasing flavonol accumulation before or during a stress response. Efforts to test this hypothesis have been initiated, and if successful have the potential for application with major seed crops such as maize and rice.