Temperature Impaired Pollen Development

Regulation of ROS is important in both development and germination of pollen. During heat stress, elevated ROS can be detrimental to these processes. Our current work examines how flavonols enhance tomato pollen development and germination by reducing ROS, using mutants with defects in genes encoding flavonol biosynthesis and plants engineered to overproduce flavonols. We are examining the mechanisms by which flavonols protect tomato pollen from elevated ROS produced during heat stress. These experiments focus on the effect of temperature on in vitro pollen tube germination and elongation and how temperature stress on whole plants in vivo affects pollen development and performance. The in vivo experiments depend on controlled growth conditions of tomato plants at optimal and high-temperature stress conditions using LED Grow Lights. We are using biosensors and dyes to examine temperature-induced ROS increases and how flavonols minimize these changes.

We are also using a genomic approach to identify transcriptional changes resulting from elevated temperature. We are comparing these transcriptional responses in mutants and transgenics with altered flavonol levels, revealing transcriptional events that are downstream of this stress. We are also examining biochemical changes, including protein oxidation, that result from high temperature-induced ROS.

Selected Publications