TY - JOUR T1 - Redistribution of NORTIA in response to pollen tube arrival facilitates fertilization in <em>Arabidopsis thaliana</em> JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/621599 SP - 621599 AU - Jing Yuan AU - Yan Ju AU - Daniel S. Jones AU - Weiwei Zhang AU - Noel Lucca AU - Christopher J. Staiger AU - Sharon A. Kessler Y1 - 2019/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/04/30/621599.abstract N2 - During gamete delivery in Arabidopsis thaliana, intercellular communication between the attracted pollen tube and the receptive synergid cell leads to subcellular events in both cells culminating in the rupture of the tip-growing pollen tube and release of the sperm cells to achieve double fertilization. Live imaging of pollen tube reception revealed dynamic subcellular changes that occur in the female synergid cells. Pollen tube arrival triggers the trafficking of NORTIA (NTA) MLO protein from Golgi-associated compartments and the accumulation of endosomes at or near the synergid filiform apparatus, a membrane-rich region that acts as the site of communication between the pollen tube and synergids. Domain swaps and site-directed mutagenesis suggest that NTA’s C-terminal cytoplasmic tail with its calmodulin-binding domain regulates NTA movement and function in pollen tube reception. Signal-mediated trafficking of NTA to the filiform apparatus upon pollen tube arrival may facilitate intercellular communication that leads to pollen tube rupture. ER -