The Papaver rhoeas S determinants confer self-incompatibility to Arabidopsis thaliana in planta

Self-incompatibility (SI) is a major genetically controlled system used to prevent inbreeding in higher plants. S determinants regulate allele-specific rejection of "self" pollen by the pistil. SI is an important model system for cell-to-cell recognition and signaling and could be potentially useful for first-generation (F₁) hybrid breeding. To date, the transfer of S determinants has used the complementation of orthologs to "restore" SI in close relatives. We expressed the Papaver rhoeas S determinants PrsS and PrpS in Arabidopsis thaliana. This enabled pistils to reject pollen expressing cognate PrpS. Moreover, plants coexpressing cognate PrpS and PrsS exhibit robust SI. This demonstrates that PrsS and PrpS are sufficient for a functional synthetic S locus in vivo. This transfer of novel S determinants into a highly divergent species (>140 million years apart) with no orthologs suggests their potential utility in crop production.