An Arabidopsis homolog of yeast ATG6/VPS30 is essential for pollen germination

Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) Atg6/Vps30 is required for autophagy and the sorting of vacuolar hydrolases, such as carboxypeptidase Y. In higher eukaryotes, however, roles for ATG6/VPS30 homologs in vesicle sorting have remained obscure. Here, we show that AtATG6, an Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) homolog of yeast ATG6/VPS30, restored both autophagy and vacuolar sorting of carboxypeptidase Y in a yeast atg6/vps30 mutant. In Arabidopsis cells, green fluorescent protein-AtAtg6 protein localized to punctate structures and colocalized with AtAtg8, a marker protein of the preautophagosomal structure. Disruption of AtATG6 by T-DNA insertion resulted in male sterility that was confirmed by reciprocal crossing experiments. Microscopic analyses of AtATG6 heterozygous plants (AtATG6/atatg6) crossed with the quartet mutant revealed that AtATG6-deficient pollen developed normally, but did not germinate. Because other atatg mutants are fertile, AtAtg6 likely mediates pollen germination in a manner independent of autophagy. We propose that Arabidopsis Atg6/Vps30 functions not only in autophagy, but also plays a pivotal role in pollen germination.