Autophagy is required for self-incompatible pollen rejection in two transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana accessions

Successful reproduction in the Brassicaceae is mediated by a complex series of interactions between the pollen and the pistil, and some species have an additional layer of regulation with the self-incompatibility trait. While the initial activation of the self-incompatibility pathway by the pollen S-locus protein11/S-locus cysteine-rich peptide and the stigma S Receptor Kinase is well characterized, the downstream mechanisms causing self-pollen rejection are still not fully understood. In previous studies, we had detected the presence of autophagic bodies with self-incompatible pollinations in Arabidopsis lyrata and transgenic A. thaliana lines, but it was not known if autophagy was essential for self-pollen rejection. Here, we investigated the requirement of autophagy in this response by crossing mutations in the essential AUTOPHAGY7 (ATG7) gene into two different transgenic self-incompatible A. thaliana lines in the Col-0 and C24 accessions. By using these previously characterized transgenic lines that express A. lyrata and A. halleri self-incompatibility genes, we demonstrated that disrupting autophagy can weaken their self-incompatible responses in the stigma. When the atg7 mutation was present, an increased number of self-incompatible pollen were found to hydrate and form pollen tubes that successfully fertilized the self-incompatible pistils. Additionally, we confirmed the presence of GFP-ATG8a labelled autophagosomes in the stigmatic papillae following self-incompatible pollinations. Together, these findings support the requirement of autophagy in the self-incompatibility response and add to the growing understanding of the cellular events that take place in the stigma to reject self-pollen. One Sentence SummaryIn self-incompatible transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana lines, autophagy is an integral part of the cellular responses in the stigma to efficiently block fertilization by self-incompatible pollen.