The mitochondrial ferredoxin ADXR is crucial for normal development and fertilization of the female gametophyte in A thaliana

BELLIDO A; DISTEFANO A; EDUARDO JULIAN ZABALETA; PAGNUSSAT G

Rosario

Conferencia; 8th Internationl Conference of Plant Mitochondrial Biology; 2013

ICPMB organizing team

In Arabidopsis, the female gametophyte or embryo sac i highly polirized structure composed by seven cells: two gametic cells, te egg and the central cell, and five accesory cells: two synergid and three antipodal cells. We here show the study of an Arabidopsis mutant with an insertion in ADXR, a nuclear gene encoding fro a mitochondrial adrenodoxin like ferredoxin. The silique analysis of heterozygous plants ADRX/adrx determined a percentage of abortions of 38,4% indicating that the insertion is affecting the gametophyte development or function. Reciprocal crossings showing that transmission through the female gametophyte is severely compromised. DIC microscopy studies revealed that mutant embryo sacs are able to reach maturity but showed alterations in the attraction of pollen tubes, suggesting that communcation betgween the female and the male gametophytes is impaired in the mutant.