Female gametophyte development is required for nucellar-tip degeneration during Arabidopsis ovule development

Abstract

Main conclusion: Genetic ablation of the female gametophyte provides direct evidence for the existence of interregional communication during Arabidopsis ovule development and the importance of the female gametophyte in nucellar-tip degeneration. The angiosperm ovule consists of three regions: the female gametophyte, the nucellus, and the integuments, all of which develop synchronously and coordinately. Previously, interregional communication enabling cooperative ovule development had been proposed; however, the evidence for these communications mostly relies on the analysis of mutant phenotypes. To provide direct evidence, we specifically ablated the Arabidopsis female gametophyte by expressing the diphtheria toxin fragment A (DTA) under the female gametophyte-specific DD13 promoter and analyzed its effects on the development of the nucellus and the integuments. We found that the female gametophyte is not required for integument development or for the orientation and curvature of the ovule body, but is necessary for nucellar-tip degeneration. The results presented here provide direct evidence for communication from the female gametophyte to the nucellus and demonstrate that Arabidopsis ovules require interregional communication for cooperative development.