title: Arabidopsis AtBECLIN 1/AtAtg6/AtVps30 is essential for pollen germination and plant development.
abstract: Pollen germination on the surface of compatible stigmatic tissues is an essential step for plant fertilization. Here we report that the Arabidopsis mutant bcl1 is male sterile as a result of the failure of pollen germination. We show that the bcl1 mutant allele cannot be transmitted by male gametophytes and no homozygous bcl1 mutants were obtained. Analysis of pollen developmental stages indicates that the bcl1 mutation affects pollen germination but not pollen maturation. Molecular analysis demonstrates that the failure of pollen germination was caused by the disruption of AtBECLIN 1. AtBECLIN 1 is expressed predominantly in mature pollen and encodes a protein with significant homology to Beclin1/Atg6/Vps30 required for the processes of autophagy and vacuolar protein sorting (VPS) in yeast. We also show that AtBECLIN 1 is required for normal plant development, and that genes related to autophagy, VPS and the glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor system, were affected by the deficiency of AtBECLIN 1.
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory for Protein Engineering and Plant Genetic Engineering, Peking-Yale Joint Research Center for Plant Molecular Genetics and AgroBiotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Genji
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Zhiqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Shufan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xing
authors.forename: Xianhui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Zhangliang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Li-Jia
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.forename: Hongya
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gu
mesh_terms: D033942:Adaptor Proteins, Vesicular Transport; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D000071186:Beclin-1; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D018525:Germination / Q000235:genetics*; D050505:Mutant Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D051479:Plant Infertility / Q000235:genetics; D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D011058:Pollen / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D033942:Adaptor Proteins, Vesicular Transport; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D000071186:Beclin-1; D050505:Mutant Proteins; C519561:beclin 1 protein, Arabidopsis