Electrostatic potentials of the S‐locus F‐box proteins contribute to the pollen S specificity in self‐incompatibility in Petunia hybrida |
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Authors: | Junhui Li Yue Zhang Yanzhai Song Hui Zhang Jiangbo Fan Qun Li Dongfen Zhang Yongbiao Xue |
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Affiliation: | 1. State Key Laboratory of Molecular Developmental Biology, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and National Center for Plant Gene Research, Beijing, China;2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China;3. Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China;4. Collaborative Innovation Center for Genetics and Development, Fudan University, Shanghai, China |
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Abstract: | Self‐incompatibility (SI) is a self/non‐self discrimination system found widely in angiosperms and, in many species, is controlled by a single polymorphic S‐locus. In the Solanaceae, Rosaceae and Plantaginaceae, the S‐locus encodes a single S‐RNase and a cluster of S‐locus F‐box (SLF) proteins to control the pistil and pollen expression of SI, respectively. Previous studies have shown that their cytosolic interactions determine their recognition specificity, but the physical force between their interactions remains unclear. In this study, we show that the electrostatic potentials of SLF contribute to the pollen S specificity through a physical mechanism of ‘like charges repel and unlike charges attract’ between SLFs and S‐RNases in Petunia hybrida. Strikingly, the alteration of a single C‐terminal amino acid of SLF reversed its surface electrostatic potentials and subsequently the pollen S specificity. Collectively, our results reveal that the electrostatic potentials act as a major physical force between cytosolic SLFs and S‐RNases, providing a mechanistic insight into the self/non‐self discrimination between cytosolic proteins in angiosperms. |
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Keywords: | self‐incompatibility
SLF
pollen S specificity electrostatic potentials S‐RNase
Petunia hybrida
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