The broad scientific aim of our research group is to study regulatory mechanisms underlying the flawless progress of male gametophyte development and function. We are interested in both regulatory levels: transcription and translation. Our model systems are pollen and pollen tubes of Arabidopsis thaliana and Nicotiana tabacum.
Research topics
1) Regulation of transcription. Our broad scientific aim is to extend the field traditionally studied in the IEB AS CR, the regulation of male gametophyte development, by opening the area of global regulation of gametophytic developmental program. The particular focus is on transcription factors and their regulatory networks that control haploid male gametophyte development in particular phases. Moreover, we are interested in identification of regulatory cis-elements in promoters of male gametophyte-expressed genes controlling their specific expression pattern.
2) Regulation of translation. This traditional field denotes the investigation of mechanisms of translational repression of stored pollen-specific transcripts in developing pollen and their controlled activation after pollen germination in tobacco. Stored mRNAs were shown to be sequestered in a form of so-called EPP particles (Honys et al. 2009). Surprisingly, these particles contain whole translational machinery and are involved also in mRNA activation and protein maturation and localisation. We are now studying the dynamic structure and precise function of EPP particles throughout various phases of pollen development and pollen tube growth.
3) Pollen proteomics. We are also interested in tobacco pollen proteomics and its dynamics at the level of proteome and its subfractions (phosphoproteome, cell wall proteome, membrane proteome) in developing pollen and growing pollen tubes.
Key results
Discovery and characterisation of EPP particles
The progamic phase of male gametophyte development involves activation of synthetic and catabolic processes required for the rapid growth of the pollen tube. It is well-established that both transcription and translation play an important role in global and specific gene expression patterns during pollen maturation. On the contrary, germination of many pollen species has been shown to be largely independent of transcription but vitally dependent on translation of stored mRNAs. We published the first structural and proteomic data about large ribonucleoprotein particles (EPPs) in tobacco male gametophyte (Honys et al. 2009). These complexes are formed in immature pollen where they contain translationally silent mRNAs. Although massively activated at the early progamic phase, they also serve as a long-term storage of mRNA transported along with the translational machinery to the tip region. Moreover, EPPs were shown to contain ribosomal subunits, rRNAs and a set of mRNAs. Presented results extend our view of EPP complexes from mere RNA storage and transport compartment in particular stages of pollen development to the complex and well-organized machinery devoted to mRNA storage, transport and subsequent controlled activation resulting in protein synthesis, processing and precise localization. Such an organization is extremely useful in fast tip-growing pollen tube. There, massive and orchestrated protein synthesis, processing, and transport must take place in accurately localized regions. Moreover, presented complex role of EPPs in tobacco cytoplasmic mRNA and protein metabolism makes them likely to be active in another plant species too. Expression of vast majority of the closest orthologues of EPP proteins also in Arabidopsis male gametophyte further extends this concept from tobacco to Arabidopsis, the model species with advanced tricellular pollen.
Role of bZIP transcription factors in pollen development
Sexual plant reproduction depends on the production and differentiation of functional gametes by the haploid gametophyte generation. Currently, we have a limited understanding of the regulatory mechanisms that have evolved to specify the gametophytic developmental programs. To unravel such mechanisms, it is necessary to identify transcription factors (TF) that are part of such haploid regulatory networks. We focused on bZIP TFs that have critical roles in plants, animals and other kingdoms. We reported the functional characterization of Arabidopsis thaliana AtbZIP34 that is expressed in both gametophytic and surrounding sporophytic tissues during flower development (Gibalova et al. 2009). T-DNA insertion mutants in AtbZIP34 show pollen morphological defects that result in reduced pollen germination efficiency and slower pollen tube growth both in vitro and in vivo. Light and fluorescence microscopy revealed misshapen and misplaced nuclei with large lipid inclusions in the cytoplasm of atbzip34 pollen. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy revealed defects in exine shape and micropatterning and a reduced endomembrane system. Several lines of evidence, including the