Cysteine-rich peptides promote interspecific genetic isolation in Arabidopsis

• DOI: 10.1126/science.aau9564
• Publication Date: 2019-05-30T23:15:16Z
• Authors: Sheng Zhong; Meiling Liu; Zhijuan Wang; Qingpei Huang; Saiying Hou; Yong-Chao Xu; Zengxiang Ge; Zihan Song; Jiaying Huang; Xinyu Qiu; Yihao Shi; Junyu Xiao; Pei Liu; Ya-Long Guo; Juan Dong; Thomas Dresselhaus; Hongya Gu; Li-Jia Qu
• Keywords: Reproductive isolation; Double fertilization

Reproductive isolation is a prerequisite for speciation. Failure of communication between female tissues the pistil and paternal pollen tubes imposes hybridization barriers in flowering plants. Arabidopsis thaliana LURE1 (AtLURE1) peptides their male receptor PRK6 aid attraction growing tube to ovule. Here, we report that knockout entire AtLURE1 gene family did not affect fertility, indicating AtLURE1-PRK6-mediated signaling required successful fertilization within one species. AtLURE1s instead function as emergence accelerators favor conspecific over from other species thus promote reproductive isolation. We also identified maternal XIUQIU1 -4, which attract regardless Cooperation ovule growth acceleration favors promotes