Unravelling the mechanism underlying temperature-induced germline determination failure in plants

Heat waves, induced by climate change, strongly impair plant fertility by preventing the proper completion of both male and female gametophyte differentiation.

While significant advances have been made in understanding the mechanism of heat-induced male sterility, little is known about how temperature affects the differentiation of female germlines.

My previous studies and preliminary analyses suggest that high temperatures impair the patterning of female gametophyte determination by affecting the expression of a key regulator, the cytochrome P450 KLUH, which normally restricts the initiation of gametophyte differentiation to a single cell within ovules.

This proposal will challenge this hypothesis by aiming to unravel the molecular mechanisms by which temperature disturbs female gametophyte differentiation in plants.

Specifically, it aims to (1) identify transcriptional regulatory factors that repress KLUH expression at high-temperature during germline determination. (2) Reveal the epigenetic basis of the temperature-induced failure of female germline determination and (3) characterize plant hormone pathways that affect the temperature sensitivity of female germline determination.

Besides improving our understanding of environmentally-induced disturbance of patterning processes, the results emerging from this work will provide new concepts for developing innovative strategies to improve plant fertility stability and crop production under unpredictable climate conditions.