Fertilized egg cells secrete endopeptidases to avoid polytubey

Xiaobo Yu, Xuecheng Zhang, Peng Zhao, Xiongbo Peng, Hong Chen, Andrea Bleckmann, Anastasiia Bazhenova, Ce Shi, Thomas Dresselhaus () and Meng-xiang Sun ()
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Xiaobo Yu: Wuhan University
Xuecheng Zhang: Wuhan University
Peng Zhao: Wuhan University
Xiongbo Peng: Wuhan University
Hong Chen: Wuhan University
Andrea Bleckmann: University of Regensburg
Anastasiia Bazhenova: University of Regensburg
Ce Shi: Wuhan University
Thomas Dresselhaus: University of Regensburg
Meng-xiang Sun: Wuhan University

Nature, 2021, vol. 592, issue 7854, 433-437

Abstract: Abstract Upon gamete fusion, animal egg cells secrete proteases from cortical granules to establish a fertilization envelope as a block to polyspermy1–4. Fertilization in flowering plants is more complex and involves the delivery of two non-motile sperm cells by pollen tubes5,6. Simultaneous penetration of ovules by multiple pollen tubes (polytubey) is usually avoided, thus indirectly preventing polyspermy7,8. How plant egg cells regulate the rejection of extra tubes after successful fertilization is not known. Here we report that the aspartic endopeptidases ECS1 and ECS2 are secreted to the extracellular space from a cortical network located at the apical domain of the Arabidopsis egg cell. This reaction is triggered only after successful fertilization. ECS1 and ECS2 are exclusively expressed in the egg cell and transcripts are degraded immediately after gamete fusion. ECS1 and ESC2 specifically cleave the pollen tube attractor LURE1. As a consequence, polytubey is frequent in ecs1 ecs2 double mutants. Ectopic secretion of these endopeptidases from synergid cells led to a decrease in the levels of LURE1 and reduced the rate of pollen tube attraction. Together, these findings demonstrate that plant egg cells sense successful fertilization and elucidate a mechanism as to how a relatively fast post-fertilization block to polytubey is established by fertilization-induced degradation of attraction factors.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03387-5

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