How pollen tubes fight for food: the impact of sucrose carriers and invertases of Arabidopsis thaliana on pollen development and pollen tube growth

Pollen tubes of higher plants grow very rapidly until they reach the ovules to fertilize the female gametes. This growth process is energy demanding, however, the nutrition strategies of pollen are largely unexplored. Here, we studied the function of sucrose transporters and invertases during pollen germination and pollen tube growth. RT-PCR analyses, reporter lines and knockout mutants were used to study gene expression and protein function in pollen. The genome of Arabidopsis thaliana contains eight genes that encode functional sucrose/H symporters. Apart from , which is companion cell specific, all other genes are expressed in pollen tubes. AtSUC1 is present in developing pollen and seems to be the most important sucrose transporter during the fertilization process. Pollen of an plant contain less sucrose and have defects in pollen germination and pollen tube growth. The loss of other sucrose carriers affects neither pollen germination nor pollen tube growth. A multiple knockout line shows a phenotype that is comparable to the Atsuc1 mutant line. Loss of AtSUC1 can`t be complemented by AtSUC9, suggesting a special function of AtSUC1. Besides sucrose carriers, pollen tubes also synthesize monosaccharide carriers of the AtSTP family as well as invertases. We could show that and are expressed in pollen, in the transmitting tissue and in the funiculi of the ovary. The vacuolar invertase is also expressed in pollen, and a knockout of leads to a severe reduction in pollen germination. Our data indicate that AtSUC1 mediated sucrose accumulation during late stages of pollen development and cleavage of vacuolar sucrose into monosaccharides is important for the process of pollen germination.