Changes in morphogen kinetics and pollen grain size are potential mechanisms of aberrant pollen aperture patterning in previously observed and novel mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana

摘要

Author summary Pollen is renowned for its ability to form beautiful and complex patterns on its surface. One of the most prominent patterns on the pollen surface is formed by apertures, the regions that lack deposition of the pollen wall exine and develop at precise locations which often vary between the species. How aperture patterns are created is an intriguing and poorly understood question. We developed a mathematical model that aims to explore the mechanisms responsible for the aperture patterning in the pollen of the model plant Arabidopsis. Our model showed that size of the pollen grain could be solely responsible for the increase in aperture number observed in the pollen of some Arabidopsis mutants. Additionally, kinetic parameters, such as diffusion and decay of aperture factors, could also influence aperture number. We coupled our mathematical modeling with a forward genetic screen of a mutagenized population of Arabidopsis. This screen discovered novel mutants with aperture patterns that had been predicted by our mathematical model. Further experiments on these mutants provided additional support to the modeling predictions. These results demonstrate that mathematical modeling could be a powerful tool for understanding the mechanisms responsible for patterning of pollen grains.