Pan-family pollen signals control an interspecific stigma barrier across Brassicaceae species
Prezygotic interspecific incompatibility prevents hybridization between species, which limits interbreeding strategies for crop improvement using wild relatives. The <i>Brassica rapa</i> female self-incompatibility determinant, <i>S</i>-locus receptor kinase (SRK), recognizes interspecific pollen. Here, we report the discovery of a pan-Brassicaceae SRK-interacting interspecific pollen signal (SIPS). On <i>B. rapa</i> stigmas, SIPSs from <i>Arabidopsis</i> and other Brassicaceae species target <i>Br</i>SRK and recruit the female fertility regulator FERONIA receptor kinase to increase stigmatic reactive oxygen species and reduce interspecific pollen viability. <i>Arabidopsis thaliana sips</i> mutant pollen failed to trigger interspecific incompatibility responses. Unlike self-incompatibility, which is controlled by the polymorphic <i>S</i> locus, different genetic variants of SRK interacted comparably with SIPS. This study establishes SIPS-SRK as a Brassicaceae-specific ligand-receptor pair that broadly maintains the stigmatic interspecific barrier in self-incompatible species.
Authors
- Xihai Sun
- Dandan Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-1641-4784)
- Shuyan Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7171-958X)
- Alice Y. Cheung (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7973-022X)
- Lianhui Pan
- Yuxiang Yuan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9744-5983)
- Rutao Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-3360-5257)
- Gengxing Song (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-2390-8416)
- Yue Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7909-4606)
- Lin Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6682-3067)
- Jiyun Hui
- Qiaohong Duan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9016-8904)
- Hen‐Ming Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2108-3848)
- Shishen Xian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4951-4825)
- Shengwei Dou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9756-7662)
- Xiaoshuang Cui (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4661-5898)
- Shangjia Liu
- Nan Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8648-3941)
- Xiaowei Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7095-5326)
- Yuqing Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6168-0777)
- Yunyun Cao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0562-6577)
- Fei Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8215-2478)
- Yanqin Ding (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6113-086X)
- Rui Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3718-5849)
- Mingming Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-9771-0215)
- Xiaochun Wei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6938-3462)
- Tong Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4121-7595)
- Rui Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-4578-1245)
- Zhaojing Ji
- Y. S. Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0446-8415)
Institutions
- University of Massachusetts Amherst (US)
- Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN)
- Weifang University (CN)
- Shandong Agricultural University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2025-11-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ady2347
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Plant Reproductive Biology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.81