MADS-complexes regulate transcriptome dynamics during pollen maturation

Wim Verelst¹ , David Twell² , Stefan de Folter³^,4 , Richard Immink² , Heinz Saedler¹ and Thomas Münster¹

¹Department of Molecular Plant Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Carl-von-Linné-Weg, 50829 Cologne, Germany

²Department of Biology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK

³Business Unit Bioscience, Plant Research International, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands

⁴National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity (Langebio), Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados (CINVESTAV-IPN), 36500 Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico

author email corresponding author email

Genome Biology 2007, 8:R249doi:10.1186/gb-2007-8-11-r249


Published:	22 November 2007

Subject areas: Plant biology, Genome studies, Molecular biology

Abstract

Background

Differentiation processes are responsible for the diversity and functional specialization of the cell types that compose an organism. The outcome of these processes can be studied at molecular, physiologic, and biochemical levels by comparing different cell types, but the complexity and dynamics of the regulatory processes that specify the differentiation are largely unexplored.

Results

Here we identified the pollen-specific MIKC* class of MADS-domain transcription factors as major regulators of transcriptome dynamics during male reproductive cell development in Arabidopsis thaliana. Pollen transcript profiling of mutants deficient in different MIKC* protein complexes revealed that they control a transcriptional switch that directs pollen maturation and that is essential for pollen competitive ability. We resolved the functional redundancy among the MIKC* proteins and uncovered part of the underlying network by identifying the non-MIKC* MADS-box genes AGL18 and AGL29 as downstream regulators of a subset of the MIKC* MADS-controlled genes.

Conclusion

Our results provide a first, unique, and compelling insight into the complexity of a transcription factor network that directs cellular differentiation during pollen maturation, a process that is essential for male reproductive fitness in flowering plants.