643 / 2019-04-29 08:51:58

The Endosperm Initiation Peptide (EIP) regulates the initiation of endosperm development after fertilization in Arabidopsis

signal peptide, endosperm initiation, Arabidopsis

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During the fertilization process, one sperm nucleus fuses with the egg cell to form the zygote and the other one fuses with the diploid central cell to form the triploid endosperm. Endosperm is important for seed development as it provides nutrients and signals for embryos. PcG proteins suppress central cell division in the absence of fertilization and auxin production after fertilization drives the replication of the central cell. However, the endosperm initiation with fertilization has not yet been elucidated. Here, we report that a signal peptide expressed in the vegetative cells of mature pollens and germinated pollen tubes may regulate endosperm initiation after fertilization. When a modified version of the peptide was natively or pollen-specifically expressed, the endosperm initiation was blocked after fertilization, therefore, we named the peptide as the Endosperm Initiation Peptide (EIP) and the modified version as EIPm. By cross screening, we identified a mutant of a leucine-rich-repeat receptor like kinase, which was able to partially recue the endosperm initiation defect of EIPm seeds. Our data indicates that EIP peptide may regulate the process of endosperm initiation after fertilization in Arabidopsis.