Novel small molecule modulators of plant growth and development identified by high-content screening with plant pollen.
Small synthetic molecules provide valuable tools to agricultural biotechnology to circumvent the need for genetic engineering and provide unique benefits to modulate plant growth and development.



We developed a method to explore molecular mechanisms of plant growth by high-throughput phenotypic screening of haploid populations of pollen cells. These cells rapidly germinate to develop pollen tubes. Compounds acting as growth inhibitors or stimulators of pollen tube growth are identified in a screen lasting not longer than 8 h high-lighting the potential broad applicability of this assay to prioritize chemicals for future mechanism focused investigations in plants. We identified 65 chemical compounds that influenced pollen development. We demonstrated the usefulness of the identified compounds as promotors or inhibitors of tobacco and Arabidopsis thaliana seed growth. When 7 days old seedlings were grown in the presence of these chemicals twenty two of these compounds caused a reduction in Arabidopsis root length in the range from 4.76 to 49.20 % when compared to controls grown in the absence of the chemicals. Two of the chemicals sharing structural homology with thiazolidines stimulated root growth and increased root length by 129.23 and 119.09 %, respectively. The pollen tube growth stimulating compound (S-02) belongs to benzazepin-type chemicals and increased Arabidopsis root length by 126.24 %.



In this study we demonstrate the usefulness of plant pollen tube based assay for screening small chemical compound libraries for new biologically active compounds. The pollen tubes represent an ultra-rapid screening tool with which even large compound libraries can be analyzed in very short time intervals. The broadly applicable high-throughput protocol is suitable for automated phenotypic screening of germinating pollen resulting in combination with seed germination assays in identification of plant growth inhibitors and stimulators.
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny, 141700, Moscow region, Russian Federation.
Roman
R
Chuprov-Netochin
Research Centerof Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Science, 117312, Moscow, Russian Federation.
Yaroslav
Y
Neskorodov
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny, 141700, Moscow region, Russian Federation.
Elena
E
Marusich
Research Centerof Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Science, 117312, Moscow, Russian Federation.
Yana
Y
Mishutkina
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny, 141700, Moscow region, Russian Federation.
Polina
P
Volynchuk
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny, 141700, Moscow region, Russian Federation.
Sergey
S
Leonov
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny, 141700, Moscow region, Russian Federation.|Research Centerof Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Science, 117312, Moscow, Russian Federation.|Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991, Moscow, Russian Federation.
Konstantin
K
Skryabin
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny, 141700, Moscow region, Russian Federation.
Andrey
A
Ivashenko
Faculty of Biology; BIOSS Centre for Biological Signaling Studies; ZBSA Centre for Biological Systems Analysis, University of Freiburg, Schänzlestr.1, 79104, Freiburg, Germany. klaus.palme@biologie.uni-freiburg.de.
Klaus
0000-0002-2728-3835
K
Palme
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny, 141700, Moscow region, Russian Federation.|Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991, Moscow, Russian Federation.
Alisher
A
Touraev
D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000378:metabolism; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D018525:Germination; D011058:Pollen / Q000378:metabolism*; D053205:Pollen Tube / Q000378:metabolism
D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins
Chemical library; Growth; Growth regulator; Pollen; Pollen tube