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Programmed-cell-death hallmarks in incompatible pollen and papillar stigma cells of Olea europaea L. under free pollination

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An Erratum to this article was published on 27 April 2010

Abstract

Programmed cell death (PCD) is a process that occurs both in animals and in plants and is an essential element in developmental processes. Pollination is a key factor in fruit production and self-incompatibility is one of the main limiting factors of this process. PCD has recently been put forward as a possible cause of pollen-growth arrest. As far as the olive is concerned, no data have been published concerning the mechanisms involved in hindering the growth of pollen tubes in incompatible pollen. Thus, we have studied olive pistils excised from freely pollinated flowers at different stages before and during the progamic phase using different cytochemical techniques, including trypan blue staining. To discover whether the elimination of incompatible pollen might be associated to PCD, we applied different tests to the excised pistils: (1) TUNEL assay; (2) DNA degradation analysis; (3) detection of caspase-3-like activity. Once we had determined that PCD was involved in pollen selection after free pollination, we conducted experiments after controlled pollination in pistils excised from flowers: (a) developing in the absence of pollen; (b) pollinated with sterile pollen that does not germinate; (c) self-pollinated; (d) pollinated with compatible pollen. Our results demonstrate that the growth of tubes in incompatible pollen is halted in the stylar area in a way that suggests the intervention of PCD. Furthermore, any pollen, even if sterile, seemed to accelerate PCD in papillar cells in the olive.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Spanish MEC Project (BFU2006-09876/BFI). I. Serrano received a research fellowship from the Ministry of Science and Innovation and S. Pelliccione from the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). We thank Mrs R. Luque and Mr F. Yerón (Ingesar S.L.) for their valuable technical assistance, Dr. C. Romero for his critical review of our paper and Dr. J. Trout for revising our English text.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology, Estación Experimental del Zaidín (CSIC), c/Profesor Albareda, 1, 18008, Granada, Spain

    Serrano Irene, Pelliccione Salvatore & Olmedilla Adela

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  1. Serrano Irene
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  2. Pelliccione Salvatore
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  3. Olmedilla Adela
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Correspondence to Olmedilla Adela.

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Communicated by A. Feher.

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00299-010-0858-0

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Irene, S., Salvatore, P. & Adela, O. Programmed-cell-death hallmarks in incompatible pollen and papillar stigma cells of Olea europaea L. under free pollination. Plant Cell Rep 29, 561–572 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-010-0845-5

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